SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 









BY 



F. W. P; GREENWOOD, D. D., 

MINISTER OF KING'S CHAPEL, BOSTON. 



NEW EDITION. 











'3> 



r 



BOSTON: 
AMERICAN UNITARIAN ASSOCIATION. 

1868. 






Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1868, by the 

AMERICAN UNITARIAN ASSOCIATION, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 



University Tress: Welch, Bigelow, & Co., 
Cambridge. 



EDITORIAL NOTE. 

This little volume, which has been long 
out of print, is republished at the request of 
the "Ladies' Commission on Sunday-School 
Books." 

Many parents, in search of some helpful 
reading for their children, will recognize it 
as one of the pleasant instructors of their 
own early years. 

January 1, 1868. 



PREFACE. 



The sermons which are contained in this 
little volume were addressed to the children of 
my church. As I knew that they were in- 
terested in hearing them, I hoped that they 
and other children might be interested in read- 
ing them ; and therefore I have caused them 
to be printed. I need not say how highly I 
shall be gratified, if they are read with favor 
and profit by those for whose use they are 
published. 

In writing this series of discourses, I en- 
deavored to adapt my style to the age and 
capacity of my audience, by making it as sim- 
ple as it could be made, consistently with a 
due degree of solemnity. I resolved also to 
dispense with the advantage which might be 
derived from the introduction of illustrative 



VI PREFACE. 

stories, as I thought that children were al- 
ready in possession of abundance of that species 
of instruction, and that I would rather trust to 
the ideas presented in a plain didactic form, to 
fix their attention. 

My hope is, that this book may be found an 
available addition to the Sunday reading of 
children, from about seven to twelve years of 
age, in the family, or in the Sunday school. 

As I have referred, in the first sermon, to a 
Catechism, I have appended it to the volume. 
It is selected from other Catechisms, not be- 
cause it claims superiority, but because it has 
been in use in the church to which I minister, 
for a term of more than fifty years. 

I now humbly ask the blessing of our heav- 
enly Father on this book, and on " little chil- 
dren." 

F. W. P. GREENWOOD. 

December, 1840. 



CONTENTS. 



-♦- 



SERMON I. Page 

God created you . .1 

SERMON II. 
God created you to be Good and Happy . . 11 

SERMON III. 
God sees and knows you 24 

SERMON IV. 

YOU SHOULD PRAY TO GOD 34 

SERMON V. 
Offices and Titles of Jesus Christ . . . .45 

SERMON VI. 
Infancy of Jesus 56 

SERMON VII. 
Childhood of Jesus 67 

SERMON VIII. 
The Notice taken of Children by Jesus . . 79 



Vlll CONTENTS. 

SERMON IX. 
A New- Year's Wish 90 

SERMON X. 
Faults of Children 100 

SERMON XI. 
A Summary jll 



A CATECHISM for the Instruction of Children 123 



SEEMON I. 



GOD CEEATED YOU. 
Come, ye children, hearken unto me. I wh^l teach 

YOU THE FEAR OF THE LORD. 

If my children will look in their Bibles for 
the Thirty-fourth Psalm, and the eleventh verse, 
they will find there the words of the text. In 
the language of Scripture, I call upon you to 
listen to me, while with affectionate concern 
for your improvement and happiness, I endeav- 
or to teach you the principles of religion, or, 
which is the same thing, the fear of the Lord. 
I mean to do this in some sermons, which I 
shall write on purpose for you, and which I 
shall try to make so plain, that you cannot 
help understanding them if you will only listen. 
And yet, though I shall try to make them 
plain, they will have the same things in them 
which I preach to grown-up people. And 
these things are very important. Indeed they 
are the most important things which can be 
told either to men and women or to children. 
l 



2 SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 

My first sermon will be about the first and 
most important thing to be known, which is, 
that you, and I, and all people, and all crea- 
tures and things, were made by one Being, or 
Mind, whom we call God. You remember 
that the first question in your catechism is, 
"Can you tell me, child, who made you?" 
And the answer is, " God made me, and all 
things." The question is a natural one, and 
the answer is perfectly true. And how do we 
know that it is true ? You may say, Because 
the Bible tells us so. That is a good reason. 
The Bible does tell us so very often. The 
first words in the Bible are, " In the begin- 
ning God created the heaven and the earth." 
And afterwards, in that same chapter it is 
said, u So God created man." And in the 
fourth commandment it says, " The Lord 
made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that 
in them is." There are a great many other 
places in which God is spoken of as the 
Maker of all things, and the Maker of all 
men. And so you would be right in saying 
that the Bible tells you, that the answer in 
the catechism is true. But there is another 
way of showing its truth. Hearken to me, 
and I will explain it to you. 



SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 3 

There is our church organ, with its rows 
of gilt pipes and its case of carved oak. 
Would you not say, that a person w r ho should 
look at it, and insist that it was not made at 
all, was ignorant, or stupid, or perverse to a 
remarkable degree? The work and arrange- 
ment which you perceive even on the outside 
of it convince you that it was made by art. 
And when you hear the fine music which 
may be brought out of it, and are shown that 
this effect is produced by means of wind, 
which is blown through a multitude of pipes 
within the case, you are still more convinced 
that it was made, and did not come there and 
breathe such rich and regular melody by 
chance. You know that it must have been 
made on purpose to produce music. You see 
that it could not make itself; and that it must 
have been made by some ingenious workman. 
Well ; but who made the workman ? Did he 
come by chance, or make himself? Consider 
this matter. Look at any man, or any child. 
His eyes, and his mouth, and his whole body 
are as regular, and as much like workman- 
ship, as the outside of that organ, and they are 
much nicer workmanship. And his voice can 



4 SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 

produce much more wonderful music than the 
organ can ; because it can speak of a great 
many different things ; and I dare say, that 
the voice of a good child is sweeter music to 
his parents than any they ever heard from 
the organ. Then, if you were to inquire of 
learned men, who have examined what is in 
the inside of the human frame, they would 
assure you that the workmanship there is 
much superior to the inside of an organ. 
They would assure you that even the hand 
which builds an organ, or plays upon it after 
it is built, is a much more curious instrument 
than the organ itself. Its muscles and joints 
and nerves and blood-vessels are much more 
ingeniously contrived and put together than 
the pipes of an organ. Then you see that 
men must be made, as well as organs. 

But who made men ? Can a man make 
himself? No. Every man knows that he 
did not make himself, and could not make 
himself. Indeed, there are very few men 
who know how curious and wonderful the 
workmanship is which composes the human 
body. How can a man make a machine, 
when he is ignorant of the parts which com- 



SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 5 

pose it, and of the manner in which they are 
fitted to each other ? Ask the best physi- 
cians, and they will tell you, that though by 
long study and examination, they have gained 
some knowledge of the human frame, there is 
a great deal about it which they do not under- 
stand. How, then, can men make a human 
frame, or body, when even the most learned 
do not know all the parts of it, and all the 
motions of it? 

If an organ gets out of tune, the man who 
made it, or any man who knows how organs 
are made, can look into it, and see what pipes 
are out of order, and then he can go to work 
and mend them. And this is because he is 
acquainted with every part of the organ, and 
can see exactly what he must do to it when it 
is out of tune. But it very often happens 
that a little child gets out of order, and is very 
sick, and pines away, and its father and 
mother do not know what is the matter with 
it, and they send for the physician, and he 
does not know what is the matter, though he 
is a good physician, and frequently cures peo- 
ple ; and no medicine is of any service to the 
child, and at last it grows cold, and dies, and 



6 SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 

its voice, which used to make such sweet 
music for its father and mother, is hushed, 
and never sings again on this earth. And so 
you see, that they who did not know what 
was the matter with it, and could not cure it, 
could not have made it. Who, then, did 
make it ? It must have been a Maker who 
is much wiser than the wisest of men. God 
made it ; and he made us all. 

And not only did God make all men, all 
human beings, but he made all things. God 

o 7 o 

made everything that you behold, and every- 
thing that is. Do you not suppose that the 
great and mighty sun, which gives light and 
heat to the whole world, must have been 
made by a Being greater and mightier than 
the sun ? How calmly and softly the moon 
shines down upon you, on a pleasant summer 
night, as if it loved to watch over good chil- 
dren, and cover them all around with peace 
and moonbeams. Do you not think it must 
have been a great and good Being who placed 
it in the sky, and gave it all that quiet and 
gentle light? Then there is the multitude 
of stars, twinkling over your heads like so 
many lamps burning up in a grand arch. 



SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 7 

But almost every child knows that they are 
not lamps, but vast worlds, larger than the 
whole earth, and as large as our sun, which is 
more than a million times as large as the 
earth. Every star is a sun ; and it seems like 
a lamp, only because it is so far away from you. 
So, when you see the twinkling stars, you 
se^ mighty suns. There they certainly are, 
shining gloriously like our own sun, and very 
probably giving light and heat to thousands 
of worlds, which are full of creatures like our 
own earth, but which are so far away that we 
cannot see them at all. It must be a very 
powerful Being who made all these suns and 
worlds. That Being is God. 

Now that I am speaking of the stars, I will 
tell you what has sometimes happened to me, 
w^hen I have been in grief or trouble, and my 
heart has felt sad and heavy. If, at such a 
time, I have looked at the stars, and consid- 
ered that they are mighty worlds, and that 
they all stand quietly in their places, and do 
their duty under the eye of their Maker, I 
have thought that the same God who made 
them made me too, and that he must be so 
wise and good as to know what is best for me, 



8 SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 

and to take care of me as well as of them. 
And after I have thought this so strongly that 
the stars almost seemed to speak it into my 
heart, I have been comforted, and my sadness 
has left me. Perhaps when you are older, 
and are in any trouble or sorrow, the stars 
may speak comfortably to you, in the same 
manner. 

But, my children, it is not only these high 
and stupendous things which require the hand 
of God to make them. Much smaller things, 
which we see about us on the earth, could 
only be fashioned by the same hand. The 
green grass, and the gray moss, and the sweet 
and lovely flowers, and the little birds, and 
the yet smaller insects are made by God ; and 
no one else could make them. In all such 
things there is something curious for us to 
learn, and much besides which is past our 
finding out. Do you think that the most in- 
genious man on earth could make a butterfly ? 
He might make something to look like a but- 
terfly, but he could not cause it to live and 
to feel. No ; he could no more make a but- 
terfly than he could make a star. For my 
own part, I would as soon undertake to make 



SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 9 

a magnificent starry world, and hang it up, 
millions of miles away in the sky, as to make 
a real living butterfly or a beetle or a creep- 
ing worm. Therefore, children, you should 
be careful never to despise those little things 
as some people very unwisely do. It is much 
wiser to study and admire them. But if you 
should not have time or inclination to study 
them, I do hope that you will never be so silly 
as to despise them ; for you may rest assured, 
that what God, in his wisdom, has seen fit to 
make, and nothing but his wisdom and power 
could make, it does not become you or any 
one else to treat with contempt. 

My children, hearken unto me a moment 
longer, and then I shall finish this sermon. 
In explaining to you how you may know that 
God made you, and all things, I spoke only 
of your bodies, and did not mention your 
souls. But if God made your bodies, much 
more must he have been the Maker of your 
souls, — those souls which think and remem- 
ber and feel and are listening to me now, — 
for those souls are even more wonderfully 
made than your bodies, or than the stars of 
the sky. Or, if they are not more wonder- 



10 SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 

ful, they are certainly more important to each 
one of you. But as I shall have occasion, at 
some other time, to speak to you more about 
your souls, or that most important part of you 
which thinks and understands and acts, I 
will only say now, that the soul of every child 
is dear to God who made it ; and I sincerely 
believe, that though God is pleased to see 
the sun and moon and stars shining to his 
praise, and the grass springing, and the flow- 
ers blowing on his own earth, and all crea- 
tures enjoying the life which he gave them, 
he is more pleased to see the soul of a child 
shining with the light of virtue, and growing 
up in goodness and usefulness and joy, like a 
beautiful and healthy plant. 

If I find that you understand this sermon, 
and are interested by it, I shall preach to you 
some more discourses, which I hope will be 
pleasant and instructive. And now let us, 
together, ascribe unto Almighty God, our 
Creator and heavenly Father, all praise and 
glory forever. 



SERMON II. 



GOD CREATED YOU TO BE GOOD AND HAPPY. 
Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy 

YOUTH. 

My children will find the text of this my 
second sermon in that book of the Old Testa- 
ment which is called Ecclesiastes, or the 
Preacher, and was written by King Solomon. 
That book has been divided into twelve chap- 
ters ; and the text is a part of the first verse 
of the twelfth chapter. 

In my first sermon I told you how you 
could know that God is your Creator. I shall 
go on to tell you how you may remember 
your Creator in the days of your childhood and 
youth. For certainly, as he is your Creator, 
as he made you so wonderfully, and placed 
you in this world, and surrounded you with 
the other wonderful works of his hand, and 
gave you all that you have, you ought to re- 
member him ; that is, you ought to think of 
him often and seriously, and learn what it 



12 SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 

is that he wishes you to do, and sincerely re- 
solve and try to do it. Surely it must be 
very wrong for any one to forget the great 
Being who made him. I hope, my children, 
that you never will forget him, but will take 
care to remember him, in the days of your 
youth, and all the days of your life. 

In order that you may learn what it is that 
your Creator wishes you to do, you must con- 
sider why it was that he made you. He must 
have had some purpose in making you ; now, 
what was that purpose ? For what did God 
make you ? Did he not place you in a mag- 
nificent and beautiful world, and make it very 
pleasant for you to look upon all the grand 
and lovely sights which it contains ? Is it 
not pleasant to exercise your bodily faculties, 
that is, to see, and hear, and to taste the food 
which God has provided for you, and to run 
about and play? And, is it not pleasant to 
exercise your mental faculties, that is, to get 
all the knowledge which is suitable to your 
age, and to feel that you are growing wiser as 
you grow older? And is it not pleasant to 
exercise your affections, that is, to love your 
friends, and be loved by them, and to be kind 



SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 13 

and grateful and generous? Is not all this 
pleasant ? Then you may be sure that God 
made you to be happy. And though you may 
be sometimes sick and in pain, and often un- 
happy, yet you are sensible that sickness and 
unhappiness are not your natural and proper 
state and condition, and therefore that you 
were not made for the purpose of being sick 
and unhappy ; but that God's chief design in 
making you was that you should be healthy 
and happy. But then he did not make you 
to be happy at all events, and in any way, but 
only on certain conditions, and in one partic- 
ular way. Let us see what that way is. 

If you are ever so healthy, and are sur- 
rounded by everything that might make you 
comfortable, if at the same time you are in a 
violent passion, or have disobeyed and justly 
displeased your parents, or have done any- 
thing wrong, you are not comfortable, you are 
not happy. The sun may shine as brightly 
as ever, and the flowers smell as sweetly, and 
the birds sing as gayly, and yet, if you are not 
good, all this, and much more, will fail to give 
you pleasure, and you will be unhappy, even 
in the midst of happiness. On the other hand, 



14 SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 

if you have been good, and have nothing on 
your mind which troubles you, you will enjoy 
all pleasant things with a double relish, and 
even bear many unpleasant things with pa- 
tience. You cannot be really happy without 
being good ; and therefore you may conclude, 
that though God made you to be happy, he 
made you to find your greatest happiness in 
being good. 

It needs care to be good, I know ; and 
sometimes it appears to be easier for children, 
and grown people too, to do wrong than to do 
right, notwithstanding they would be happy 
in doing right, and unhappy in doing wrong. 
But this does not prove that you are not 
made just as you ought to be, and made to be 
good and happy. I will call your attention 
once more to the comparison of the organ. 
Suppose that a person should go up to it, and, 
without any skill or attention, strike about on 
the keys, wherever his hands might happen to 
fall. Instead of making music, he would 
make most terrible discord : yet it would not 
be fair to say, that the organ was built to 
make discord, would it ? Surely not. It was 
built to make music, because, when it is 



SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 15 

played upon properly, it does make music. 
It is an instrument of music, and not an instru- 
ment of discord, even though it may be easier 
to make discord on it than to make music. 
Music is pleasant ; discord is not pleasant, but 
painful. We must believe that all the time 
and skill and expense which were devoted to 
the building of the organ were devoted to 
bring forth what should be pleasant, and not 
what should be painful. The organ may 
produce discord, and will produce discord if its 
keys are struck ignorantly and improperly. 
But not so, if they are touched with knowl- 
edge and care. Let the very person who 
made such discord with its tones take lessons 
in music, and pay attention to them, and 
strive to improve himself by practice, and then 
he will play on it better and better, commit- 
ting mistakes, most probably, as he goes on, 
but still playing better and better, every day, 
till he draws forth music from it which charms 
himself and every one else. 

It is very much the same with yourselves. 
You were made for goodness, virtue, holiness, 
which may be called spiritual music, or the 
music of the soul. Love, hope, fear, joy, 



16 SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 

grief, are the musical notes within you. If 
your will is suffered to strike those notes, in 
a violent and careless and uninstructed man- 
ner, discord and sin will very likely be the 
consequence. But if you are rightly instruct- 
ed in your duty, and you pay continual atten- 
tion to the lessons which you receive, — for if 
you do not pay this attention yourselves the 
lessons will be of little service to you, — then 
your affections will be made to harmonize to- 
gether more and more, and it will be easy and 
delightful to you to produce spiritual music, 
that is, to be good, and this music will be very 
sweet to the ears of your friends and of lis- 
tening angels, and of God who made you, and 
made 3^011 to be good and happy. 

You have a great many teachers, to instruct 
you in spiritual music. Some of them are 
visible ; such as your parents and your min- 
ister and your schools and your books ; and 
some of them are invisible, such as experience 
and habit and conscience. But let your 
teachers be ever so many, and ever so well 
qualified, if you do not attend to their instruc- 
tions, and do not try to profit by them, you 
will never be accomplished in that goodness 



SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 17 

which I call spiritual harmony, but you will 
go on making discord through the whole of 
your lives. And what sad lives, such lives 
of discord will be ! 

I have said, that you must remember your 
Creator by thinking of him, and trying to 
please him ; and that the way to please him is 
by being good, which is also the way to be 
happy yourselves. Now, if it is so very im- 
portant to be good, it is also important to know 
what it is to be good, as exactly as we can. 
A few plain rules will point out to you the best 
ways for a child to take in order to be good. 

The first rule of goodness for you to ob- 
serve, is, to love and obey your parents. It is 
true that most children do not need to be told 
to love their parents, for they cannot help lov- 
ing them, and it would be strange if they did 
not love them. You see every day that your 
parents take care of you, and work for you, 
and love you, and so you naturally love them. 
But then most of you do need to be reminded 
how much you owe to your parents, so that 
you may love them more thoughtfully, and 
show your love to them in a right and proper 
manner. 

2 



18 SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 

By saying that your love of your parents 
should be thoughtful, I mean that you should 
think of their kindness and their watchfulness, 
so that your mind may be prepared to show 
your love on every occasion. You owe to 
your parents more than you do to any other 
human beings. You hardly know how much 
and how often your parents think of you, and 
how constantly they are endeavoring to pro- 
vide for your happiness and safety. They are 
always anxious for the comfort of your body 
and the improvement of your mind. They 
not only toil that you may not want, and 
watch that you may not suffer, but they 
would rather want themselves than see you 
want, and would rather suffer themselves 
than see you suffer. Now you should think 
of this, and then your love will be thoughtful, 
and will be ready to show itself in a proper 
manner. And how will it show itself in a 
proper manner? By leading you to obe- 
dience. The best way to show your parents 
that you love them is to do the things that 
they w T ish you to do, and to do them willingly 
and cheerfully. You should obey them, not 
because they are stronger than you, and have 



SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 19 

power to oblige you to obey ; but because you 
love them, and like to show your love by 
pleasing them. And parents are better 
pleased by the obedience of their children 
than by anything else. Of course I do not 
mean that you should do what is wicked, even 
in obedience to your parents ; because that 
would be to disobey God; but I do not be- 
lieve that you will be exposed to any such 
trial ; and you may be assured, that as your 
parents are wiser than you are, they will 
know what is right better than yourselves, 
and will only expect you to do what is really 
good. 

The second rule of goodness is, to speak the 
truth always. There is a most excellent 
beauty in truth. No child and no man can 
be good, without being honest and true. 
When a child is in the habit of speaking what 
is false, the beauty of his soul is gone, and 
there is no knowing how deformed it may 
grow. The ways of falsehood are crooked 
and dark and foul 'and dangerous, and if you 
begin to walk in them, you will soon meet 
with shame, and soon after with misery. But 
the ways of truth are straight and open, and 



20 SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 

foil of sunshine and honor. Shall I tell you 
what a child is like who loves the truth, and 
always speaks the truth ? He is like a pure 
fountain of water, which exactly reflects the 
image of every flower which stands near it, 
and every bird which flies over it, and which 
is so clear that one can look down into it and 
see every little pebble at the bottom. But a 
child who does not love the truth, nor speak 
it, is like a fountain which has been sadly dis- 
turbed and mixed with impurities ; it is turbid 
and muddy, and no one can see into it, and 
there is no refreshment in looking at it. I be- 
seech you, my children, to hold fast to the 
truth, and never be afraid of speaking it, and 
to shun the crooked paths of deception, and to 
keep your souls clean and pure, like fountains 
of healthy and crystal water, into which the 
flowers and the stars and all men love to look. 
The third rule of goodness is, to be just and 
kind to all persons. To be just to all persons 
commonly means to deal with them and be- 
have towards them in precisely such a way as 
they have a right to mark out ; to give them 
everything which is their due, and keep from 
them nothing which is theirs. To be kind to 



SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 21 

all persons is to be ready to oblige all persons 
as far as you can ; and to forgive those who 
have injured you ; and to feel a sincere desire 
for the happiness of all persons. Justice and 
kindness ought always to go together; for 
justice is but a rough virtue without kindness, 
and kindness is but a weak virtue without 
justice ; and people will despise one who is 
not just, and dislike one who is not kind. 
You cannot be completely and consistently 
kind, unless you are just ; and you cannot be 
largely and nobly just, unless you are kind. 
Imagine yourselves going along in a road, 
with Justice and Kindness for your constant 
travelling companions and guides. Justice 
always speaks to you plainly, and prevents 
your injuring anybody or anything that you 
meet in the way, and sees that you pay exact- 
ly all the expenses of your journey ; and 
Kindness softly asks you to pardon those who 
may injure you, and now and then urges you, 
with a tender smile on her face, to step a little 
out of your way to help those who may need 
your assistance. And Justice never frowns on 
Kindness : and Kindness never interferes with 
Justice. I think that if you observe what Jus- 



22 SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 

tice and Kindness both say to you in the jour- 
ney of life, other people will be glad to walk 
with you, and be sorry to part with you ; and 
that when you get to the end, you will look 
back on your course with satisfaction and joy. 

I have now explained to you the three rules 
of being good : which are, to love and obey 
your parents ; to speak the truth always ; and 
to be just and kind to all persons. To be 
good, is to obey and please your Creator, who 
made you to be good and happy ; and to try 
to please and obey your Creator is one meth- 
od of remembering him, and the best way of 
showing that you do remember him truly. 
Remember your Creator in the days of your 
youth, and then it will be easy and delightful 
for you to remember and serve him, in the 
days of your manhood, and of your old age, 
if it should please him to spare your lives. 
And, O my children, let me assure you, that 
it is but of little consequence how long or 
how short a time you are permitted to live on 
the earth, if, while you live here, you remem- 
ber your Creator, and do the things which 
please him. 

I will close this sermon by repeating to you 



SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 23 

a hymn, which is on the same subject, that of 
remembering our Creator in the days of youth. 
If you are not already acquainted with it, you 
had better commit it to memory. 

u In the soft season of thy youth, 
In nature's smiling bloom, 
Ere age arrive, and trembling wait 
Its summons to the tomb ; 

" Remember thy Creator, God ; 
For him thy powers employ ; 
Make him thy fear, thy love, thy hope, 
Thy confidence, thy joy. 

" He shall defend and guide thy course 
Through life's uncertain sea, 
Till thou art landed on the shore 
Of blessed eternity. 

" Then seek the Lord betimes, and choose 
The path of heavenly truth ; 
The earth affords no lovelier sight 
Than a religious youth." 



SERMON III. 



GOD SEES AND KNOWS YOU. 

The Lord's throne is in heaven; his eyes behold, 
his eyelids try, the children (h* men. 

The above words are from the fourth verse 
of the Eleventh Psalm. They mean that God 
is over all things in his greatness and majesty, 
and that from the height of his exalted power, 
or throne, he is not only able to see all men, 
but to see into their hearts, and examine their 
thoughts, and try them, whether they are good 
or evil. The wonderful knowledge of God, by 
which he beholds all that we do and all that 
we think, is a subject which children ought to 
consider, and which I will ask them to consid- 
er now. 

I told you in my last sermon, that you 
should remember your Creator in the days of 
your youth, and I told you in what manner 
you should remember him. I told you that 
you must think of him, and try to please him, 
and that you could only please him by being 



SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 25 

good. And I told you what it was to be 
good. And now I wish to impress upon your 
minds the important truth, that God certainly 
knows whether you are good or not. Every- 
thing which you do to please God will be 
noticed by him, if it is ever so little ; and if it 
is not noticed by any one else, still it is 
noticed by your Creator ; for he sees all that 
you do, and hears all that you say, and is 
acquainted with all that you think. He who 
made you never loses sight of you ; and as 
he made your mind as well as your body, he 
sees what your mind is doing as well as what 
your body is doing. 

It may seem surprising to you, that God 
should be able to see all the people, the many 
millions of people, who live on the earth, and 
know all that they are doing, and all their 
most secret feelings and thoughts besides. 
But you must remember that he made all these 
people, and gave them the power to think, 
and that he made the world in which they 
live, and those worlds without number which 
we call the heavenly bodies ; and then you 
will perceive that it must be very easy for the 
Being who did all this to see all his human 



26 SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 

creatures, and be acquainted with all their 
thoughts. You will not be able to compre- 
hend how he knows all men's thoughts, but 
you will be satisfied that it is not difficult for 
him to know them, because he formed their 
minds, and caused them to begin to think, — so 
that he must know more about men's minds 
than they do themselves. The knowledge of 
this truth should make you careful that your 
thoughts should be correct as well as your ac- 
tions, and that you should really be good, 
as well as seem to be good. If you wish 
to do a bad thing, and cannot do it, or are 
afraid to do it, still God knows your wish, 
even though you said nothing and did noth- 
ing, and he is displeased with you for that 
evil wish. And so if you wish to do a good 
thing, and are not able to do it, he knows that 
you had a good wish in your heart, and loves 
you for that good wish. Therefore, if you 
desire to please God, you must endeavor to 
have good thoughts in your mind and good 
purposes in your hearts ; for he will surely 
know whether they are there or not. 

You must consider also that God sees you 
and your thoughts at all times, in the night as 



SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 27 

well as in the day. You cannot see without 
light, but God can, because he is an all- 
sufficient light to himself. He who made the 
sun and the stars, and gave them all their 
light, can surely see without those beams 
which they have only borrowed from him. 
He commanded the sun to shine for our use, 
but not for his own. The Maker of the sun 
is brighter than the sun ; and the darkness is 
no darkness to him. 

The truth that God is everywhere present, 
and that he always sees us, is expressed so 
finely by King David, in the One Hundred and 
Thirty-ninth Psalm, that I will read parts of it 
to you, and have no doubt that, after what I 
have said, you will sufficiently understand 
them, without further explanation. " O Lord," 
he says, " thou hast searched me, and known 
me. Thou knowest my downsitting and mine 
uprising ; thou understandest my thought afar 
off." And again he says, "Whither shall 
I go from thy spirit ? or whither shall I flee 
from thy presence ? If I ascend up into heav- 
en, thou art there ; if I make my bed in the 
place of the dead, behold thou art there. 
If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell 



28 SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 

in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there 
shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand 
shall hold me." Now listen again to what 
he says of God's seeing in the darkness. 
"If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover 
me, — even the night shall be light about 
me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee ; 
but the night shineth as the day ; the dark- 
ness and the light are both alike to thee." 

These words which I have repeated to you 
have been often turned into English poetry, 
and the meaning of them is so grand that it 
always makes the poetry good. Perhaps some 
of you remember this verse : — 

" Or should I try to shun thy sight 
Beneath the sable wings of night, 
One glance from thee, one piercing ray, 
Would kindle darkness into day." 

Children ! when you grow older, many of 
you will probably read various works, both in 
poetry and prose ; and you will meet with 
passages in them which you will call very 
poetical, very sublime, very true, — and so they 
may be ; but you will never meet with a pas- 
sage in all your reading, more poetical, more 



SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 29 

sublime, or more true than the portions of the 
psalm of David which I have just recited to 
you. 

It is certain then, that God sees you always, 
and knows whether you are good or not. And 
just so certainly as he sees that you are good, 
that you remember him, and try to please him, 
will he love you and make you happy. God 
has promised to love those who keep his com- 
mandments. I could show you many such 
promises in the Bible. And you perceive that 
it must be so. When your parents make a 
rule or law for your behavior, you know them 
to be desirous that you should keep it, and 
you know that they will love you if you do 
keep it. They would not make a law for you, 
if they did not wish you to observe it. God 
would not make a law, if he did not wish to 
have it observed. If you do as he wishes, and 
observe his laws, he will love you, and make 
you happy. You will feel that he loves you, 
just as you feel that your parents love you 
w r hen you obey them. Are you not happy 
when you feel that your parents love you ? 
Just so will you be happy when you feel that 
God loves you. God is your heavenly Parent. 



30 SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 

He will lead you, and protect you, and will 
never suffer any real harm to come to those 
whom he loves. He will give you sweet sleep 
when you are weary. He will give you health 
of body and health of mind. He will make 
other people love you and do you good. Such 
things are what are called temporal blessings ; 
and God generally gives them to those whom 
he loves. But if he should not give you these, 
you will learn, that if he loves you, you can be 
happy without them. If you should be ill and 
unable to sleep, you can think on his love, and 
that will soothe you. If you should be in 
grief, the thought of his love will calm you. 
If you should be poor, you will feel that his 
love is riches enough ; and if other people 
neglect you, you will be comforted by thinking 
that God is near you, and will never forget 
nor forsake you. In short, you will find more 
and more, as you grow older, that if you con- 
tinue to remember and obey your Creator, 
though you will probably have abundance of 
temporal blessings from him, his love alone 
will be your greatest happiness ; and that if 
your temporal blessings are taken away, you 
will still be happy, because the love of God 



SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 31 

will be left you. You will learn not to de- 
pend for all your happiness on things which 
may go away, and leave you miserable ; but 
you will depend on God, who cannot go away 
from you, and you will be happy in his love, 
which cannot be taken away from you. 

Should you ask the question, What shall I 
do for God, who is so good to me ; who gives 
me friends to take care of me, and so many 
excellent and beautiful things to see and en- 
joy, and who gives me his love, which is 
better than all ? Can I not do something for 
him ? No ; you can do nothing for him in 
the way of helping him; because he is all- 
powerful, and can do everything, and is all- 
wise, and knows how to do all things right. 
He does not need your aid in any of his grand 
operations in the universe. You can only 
love him, obey him, and be thankful to him. 
But by doing this, you can, in a certain sense, 
do something for God. By being good your- 
selves, you are permitted to do something for 
God. Yes, even a little child can, in this 
way of considering the subject, do something 
for God, because he does what God wishes 
him to do. 



32 SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 

Let us suppose that one of you, after think- 
ing how kind his earthly father had always 
been to him, should feel full of gratitude, and 
run and say to him, Father, you are very 
kind to me, you are always doing me good, — 
what can I do for you ? can I not help you in 
your business or your profession ? His father 
would probably say to him, No, my child, you 
cannot help me in that way. You are too 
young and too weak to be able to do anything 
for me in the business which I pursue ; but 
in another way you can do something for me, 
and something which I shall be rejoiced to 
have you do. You can obey me ; you can 
mind what I say to you ; you can love your 
brothers and sisters, and be kind to them, and 
help them, so that I may have a peaceful, 
happy family around me, and that will be do- 
ing something for me, a great deal for me. 

In a way similar to this, you can do some- 
thing for your Maker. One of the methods 
which God has chosen in making his human 
children happy, is by so placing them together 
in the world, that they may make each other 
happy. And when they make each other 
happy, by doing real and lasting good to each 



SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 33 

other y they are doing something for God. If 
you are kind, and benevolent, and gentle, and 
accommodating to those who are around you, 
no matter whether they are rich or poor, of 
this country or that country, you are doing 
something for God, for they are all his chil- 
dren, and he desires to see them all dwelling 
peacefully and happily together. 

Yes, my children, though God is so power- 
ful, that he does whatever pleases him in 
heaven and on earth, and keeps all the stars 
in their stations, and guides all the planets in 
their mighty courses, and sends the lightnings, 
and rules over the minds of men and angels, 
yet you, by your virtues, by your simple obe- 
dience, can do something for him. Think 
of this ; and the thought will encourage and 
strengthen you in all goodness, and keep you 
from disobedience and sin. 

Remember, I say again, that even you can 
do something for the mighty Creator. You 
can bring him the offerings of your love and 
your duty. And if you bring them humbly, 
he will graciously accept them, and count 
them as of more value than the sacrifices on a 
thousand altars. 

3 



SERMON IV. 



YOU SHOULD PRAY TO GOD. 
Pray to thy Father. 

Children, I believe that you like to hear 
me speak to you of the excellent things of 
religion ; and it gives me great pleasure to 
teach you what I think will be useful to you. 
I ask you to listen to me again. 

It was the wise King Solomon who said, 
u Remember now thy Creator in the days of 
thy youth." It was a greater than Solomon 
who said, " Pray to thy Father." It was 
Jesus Christ who spoke those words to his dis- 
ciples, or scholars, when he was teaching 
them how they should pray ; as you may find 
by turning to the sixth chapter of the Gos- 
pel of Matthew, and the sixth verse. By 
" Father," he meant your heavenly Father, or 
God ; and God is called your Father, because 
he made you, and takes care of you, and is 
kind to you, and loves you. I have already 



SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 35 

spoken to you about remembering your Crea- 
tor ; I will now speak to you about praying to 
your Father. 

Praying to your Father is speaking to him, 
and asking of him whatever is needful and 
good, for yourselves and for others. And it is 
right that you should speak to him. It is 
right that a child should speak to his father. 
Does not a child take pleasure in speaking to 
his earthly father, asking him for gifts, and 
thanking him for daily kindness ? Why then 
should you not speak to your heavenly Father, 
and ask him for his good and perfect gifts, and 
thank him for the loving-kindness which he 
shows to you every day and every hour ? It 
is true that you cannot see your heavenly 
Father ; but that is no reason why you should 
not speak to him. It is not necessary that 
you should see him. If he sees you, and 
hears you, then you can speak to him, and 
ought to speak to him. And does he not hear 
you ? Certainly he does. I told you in my 
last sermon, that God always sees you, and 
now I tell you that he always hears you. 
Who made your ears, and caused you to hear ? 
It was God* And " he who made the ear, 



36 SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 

shall he not hear ? " That is a question which 
is asked in the Bible ; and every child can 
answer, yes ; he who could make the ear 
must certainly be able to hear. He does hear 
all you say, if it is with ever so low a voice, 
and in ever so lonely a place. You cannot say 
a word that he does not hear. And yet more 
than this, you cannot think a thought that he 
does not hear ; for he knows what it is, and 
that is the same as hearing it. He who made 
all things is everywhere. He w r ho takes caro 
of all things, never sleeps. He sees all, hears 
all, knows all. So you will perceive that, so 
far from its being difficult to make God hear 
you, you cannot help his hearing you. He al- 
ways hears you. 

And now I want to ask, whether it is not 
proper that your heavenly Father should some- 
times hear you speak to him ? Is it right that 
he should hear you speak to everybody but 
him, and hear you think of everything but 
him ? Shall he be near to you all the time ; 
shall he be watching over you by day while 
you are waking, and by night while you are 
sleeping ; shall he guard you from danger, and 
hold you in life, and surround you with bless- 



SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 37 

ings, and be listening to you all the while, and 
yet not hear you say one word to him with 
your lips or with your heart? You cannot 
suppose this to be right. 

There is no doubt that God wishes you to 
speak to him, to pray to him. In the Old 
Testament and in the New Testament we are 
told to pray to God ; and all the good persons 
whom we read of there did pray to God. 
"I cried unto God with my voice," says one 
of them, " even unto God with my voice, and 
he gave ear unto me." Moses, and Aaron, and 
Samuel, " they called upon the Lord, and he 
answered them." Our Saviour Jesus Christ 
prayed to God, and he has told us to pray to 
God, who is his Father and our Father. And 
in many other ways we may learn that God 
wishes us to pray to him. Have you never, 
when you have behaved well, and have been 
very happy, had a feeling in your bosom as if 
you ought to thank some one, though you 
could hardly tell whom ? That feeling in 
your bosom is a voice from God, which tells 
you that you ought to thank him, who is the 
author of your happiness. Have you never, 
when you have been in sickness or sorrow, 



88 SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 

had a feeling as if you wanted very much to 
lean upon some one who could help you out of 
trouble better than any one you knew ? That 
feeling is a voice from God, which tells you 
that you should lean upon him, and ask him to 
help you. And when you have done wrong, 
have you not felt uneasy and unhappy, as if you 
longed to be forgiven, not only by your parents, 
but by some one else. That uneasy feeling is 
a voice from God, which tells you to ask 
forgiveness of him, that he may pardon you. 
Children ! a great many voices call upon you 
to speak to God and pray to him. The good 
old men of old times, and the good children 
too ; and Jesus Christ your Saviour ; and the 
feelings in your bosom, when you are either 
happy or unhappy, all tell you to pray to God 
your heavenly Father. You hear these voices, 
not with your outward ears, but with your 
soul. They make no noise in the air ; but 
they speak without noise in your heart. 
When you hear them, you should attend to 
them. They tell you what is true. 

But perhaps you may think, that, as you are 
children, and not able to speak very well, you 
are not able to pray to God. But you are 



SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 39 

able ; for it is an easy thing to pray to God, if 
you really think of him when you pray. It is 
not necessary that you should be nice in your 
words when you speak to God, if you are only 
sincere and humble and serious. The simplest 
and plainest words are the best. If you 
wanted bread of your earthly father, you could 
not ask him in a plainer way than by saying, 
Give me some bread. Now this is the very 
way in which we are taught by our Lord and 
Saviour to ask bread of our heavenly Father, 
" Give us this day our daily bread." What 
words can be simpler than those ? Our Sav- 
iour sets us an example of great simplicity in 
prayer. Indeed you can pray without using 
any words aloud. The beauty and reality of 
prayer is in the feeling rather than in the 
words. If you have a feeling in your heart, 
which rises up to God, and thanks him, or 
asks anything of him, that feeling is a prayer. 
If in the morning you say in your heart, " Fa- 
ther, I thank thee that I live to see this 
morning," that is a morning prayer. If in the 
evening you say in your heart, " Father, keep 
me this night," that is an evening prayer. If, 
when you are sick, you say in your heart, 



40 SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 

u Father, make me well " ; or when you have 
done wrong, you say, " Father, forgive me " ; 
— you have prayed aright, and God hears 
those silent prayers. And if you continue the 
habit of praying in your heart to God, you 
will have more and more thoughts there as 
you grow older, which will love to seek God. 
They will spring up fast in your hearts, like 
sweet flowers in June, and they will fly up to 
heaven like birds of paradise. 

But though silent thoughts of God are real 
prayers, which God hears as distinctly as if 
they were uttered aloud in words, yet it is 
proper that you should utter words, and pray 
with your lips as well as with your heart. 
Should you not be veiy sorry if you could not 
speak, and could not hear others speak ? Is it 
not a great pleasure to talk with your friends ? 
Certainly. Speech is a noble gift. But who 
gave it to you ? God. How then can you 
use it better than in speaking to God ? Speak 
to him then. Pray to your Father in words. 
Do not speak of everything but of Him who 
gave you power to speak. You cannot speak 
of anything so great, so glorious as he is. You 
cannot speak to any being so good, so kind, so 



SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 41 

ready to hear you, as lie is. Speak to him, 
and pray to him, with the words of your 
mouth, and also with the feelings and medita- 
tions of your heart. And the words which 
you use may either be your own words, or 
words which are written for you in books of 
prayer. If the words which are written for 
you are good, and your mind understands 
them, and your heart feels them, then you 
really pray with them, and you make them 
your ow r n prayer. And if they are words 
which your beloved parents, and many other 
excellent people used in praying long ago, 
they may very well be dear words to you, and 
you may very well like to use them. 

You must not think that you need not pray 
to God, because God gives you a great many 
things without your praying for them. It is 
true that God will give you food, and clothing, 
and health, whether you pray for them or not. 
But this only shows that God is good to you, 
though you may not do your duty to him 
Your earthly parents would not let you starve, 
or go without clothes, even though you should 
never ask them to give you food and clothing, 
and never thank them for the gifts. But still 



42 SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 

they are pleased to have you ask them for 
what you want and to have you thank them 
for what they give you ; and it is right for you 
to do both. You neglect them, and are rude 
to them, if you do not do both. And so if 
there are those who do not pray to their 
heavenly Father for many things which he yet 
gives them, they are neglectful of their best 
friend ; and if they do not thank him for those 
things, they are very ungrateful to their kind- 
est benefactor. 

Then again, you may pray for things which 
God may not grant to you. But this is not 
because he does not hear you, or does not love 
you, but because he is much wiser than you 
are, and knows that it will be better for you 
not to have what you ask for. If any dear 
friend, for instance, should be extremely ill ; if 
your father, or mother, or brother, or sister 
should be lying on the bed of sickness, and 
seem to be near death, you could hardly help 
asking God, with the words of your mouth or 
the words of your heart, and most earnestly, 
too, that your friend might live. This would 
be right. But God might not see fit to grant 
your prayer. He would hear you, and love 



SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 43 

you ; but in his great wisdom he might know 
it to be best that your friend should die. 

Now, children, listen to what I am going to 
say to you at the end of this sermon on prayer. 
The most important things for which you can 
ask your heavenly Father, are not bread, or 
clothing, or health, or even life in this world. 
Goodness is more important ; religion is more 
important. Innocence, justice, kindness, truth, 
and honesty, — these are the most important 
things ; and not only are they the most impor- 
tant, but God will surely give them to you, if 
you sincerely ask him for them. One reason 
w T hy so many people are not good, is, that 
they do not ask for goodness of God ; or if 
they ask for it with their lips, do not ask for it 
with the strong feelings of their hearts. Pray 
to God for goodness, and he will give it to you, 
if you pray heartily and sincerely. When you 
are about to do w r rong, pray to God to keep 
you from doing wrong, — say in your heart, 
" Father, keep me from doing this wrong," and 
you will be kept from doing it. When you 
are going to be violently angry, say in your 
heart, " Father, save me from being angry," 
and the peace of God will come down into 
your bosom like a dove, and the bad fire in 



44 SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 

your eyes will be quenched, and the hot color 
in your cheeks will cool away. When you 
feel that there is any danger that a good feel- 
ing or a virtuous resolution is going to be 
taken out of your heart, say to your heavenly 
Father, " Father, let not my virtue be taken 
out of my heart," and I firmly believe it will 
not be taken, but will remain. And why ? 
Because God is ready to help his children ; and 
because the thought of God, which you place 
in your heart by speaking to him, is holy 
and strong, and will stand in your heart, and 
guard your virtues, which are your heart's best 
treasures, and will keep them from being 
stolen away. The thought of God is the best 
thought and the strongest thought that you 
can have ; and when it really comes into your 
heart, all other good thoughts will stay under its 
protection, and bad thoughts will be driven out. 
You are weak ; but the thought of God is 
strong, — strong to guard your innocence and 
virtue ; strong to check your anger and pride 
and selfishness ; strong to help your weakness, 
and console your sorrows. Pray to God, your 
Father, that the thought of God may come into 
your hearts, and keep and comfort and bless 
them. 



SERMON V. 



OFFICES AND TITLES OF JESUS CHRIST. 

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you 
all. 

In my last sermon, I spoke to you, my dear 
children, on the subject of praying to your 
heavenly Father. The words of my text 
were the words of Christ, who said, " Pray to 
thy Father." The words which I have taken 
for the text of this sermon were written by 
one of his apostles, Paul, in an Epistle, or Let- 
ter, to the Christian Romans, sixteenth chap- 
ter and twenty-fourth verse. It is a form, in 
which he gives them his blessing. He prays 
that the grace, or kind favor, of Jesus Christ 
may be with all his friends. I likewise pray, 
that the same grace may be with you all, my 
dear children. 

If you love Christ, he will love you, and 
his grace will be with you. You can hardly 
help loving him, when you know him ; be- 
cause he was so good, so kind, so excellent. 
The more you know him, the better you will 



46 SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 

love him. I wish to help you to know him ; 
and if I can help you ever so little, I shall be 
doing you a great service, and I shall be glad. 

I have been telling you of God, and of 
your duty to God, and of praying to God. 
Now I will tell you of Jesus Christ, who, next 
to God, is the most deserving of your rever- 
ence and your love. No being that ever 
lived on earth had so much goodness as he 
had, or loved mankind so well, or did them so 
much good, as he did. And he has told us 
more of God than any one else ever has ; and 
he has told us of heaven ; and he has told us 
what God will do for us if we are good while 
we live on earth, and what will become of us 
if we are not good. And he was able to tell 
us of all these important and wonderful things, 
because God greatly loved him, and filled his 
mind full of divine knowledge, and filled his 
heart full of divine love. He had his wisdom 
from God, and his power from God ; and his 
power was so great, that he did many won- 
derful works by it, which no man could have 
done, unless God had been with him. 

Before Jesus Christ came into the world, 
the inhabitants of the world were very ig- 



SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 47 

norant, — very ignorant, I mean, of things 
which were most important to be known. 
They knew how to make abundance of useful 
and elegant articles ; how to weave gar- 
ments ; how to build houses, and palaces, and 
temples, and monuments ; how to carve stat- 
ues, and paint pictures; and how to write 
history and poetry, and many other kinds of 
learning. All these they knew very well, 
and some of them they knew better than we 
do. But they did not know, that is, general- 
ly, or with any certainty, who created them, 
or why they were created, or how they should 
behave in the best manner while they lived, 
or whether they should live again after they 
were dead. It was not of much consequence, 
was it, that they could make splendid temples, 
if, instead of the great and good Creator, they 
worshipped, in their temples, an image with- 
out any sense, or a brute animal ? It was not 
of much consequence, was it, what they knew, 
if they did not know themselves and their own 
life and the Being who made them ? Jesus 
Christ came to teach them this kind of knowl- 
edge, which is called spiritual knowledge, be- 
cause it concerns the spirit or soul of man. He 



48 SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 

came to teach them, that One God was the 
Maker of the whole world and the Father of 
all the people in the world. He came to 
teach them how they should live with each 
other, and how they should serve and please 
their heavenly Father. He came to teach them 
that death was not the end of their existence ; 
that they would surely live again in another 
world ; and that they would be happy or mis- 
erable in that world, according as they had 
conducted themselves in this world. After he 
had taught these great spiritual truths, and 
shown in his own life how men ought to live, 
he was killed by wicked enemies, and then 
was buried in a tomb. But you know he did 
not remain dead and lying in the tomb, but 
was raised again to life by the power of God 
on the third day after he was crucified ; and 
then, after he had shown himself to his dis- 
ciples and many other persons, was taken up 
into heaven where he lives with God for ever 
and ever. And he does not live there alone. 
All the souls of good people and good chil- 
dren live with him. If you will love him 
and mind what he has said, you will live with 
him too. 



SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 49 

What I have now told you concerning 
Jesus Christ will assist you to understand the 
meaning of the names by which he is called in 
the Bible. You remember that in the text 
of this sermon he is called " our Lord Jesus 
Christ." I will explain to you the second of 
these names first, because it is properly his 
only name, the others being his titles. 

Before Jesus was born an angel told his 
mother that Jesus should be his name. It 
was not an uncommon name ; but every name 
among the Jews was a Hebrew word, which 
had a particular meaning. Jesus is the same 
name as Joshua ; Jesus being the Greek way 
of spelling and pronouncing the Hebrew name 
Joshua ; just as you find that the same name 
may be spelt and pronounced differently in 
French and in English. And the meaning of 
Joshua, or Jesus, is, He who shall save, or The 
Saviour. It was chosen to be the name of 
the child of Mary, because he was to save his 
people from their sins. Remember, therefore, 
that the name Jesus means Saviour. He is 
the Saviour of men ; because if they will be- 
lieve in him, and obey him, he will save them 
from their sins. When people believe in 



50 SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 

Jesus, and obey his commands, and imitate 
his example, they are saved from their sins, 
because they leave off their sins, and become 
good. I pray that the grace of Christ may be 
with us all, that we may be saved from our 
sins, — our sins that do us so much harm, — our 
sins that hurt our souls, — our sins that sepa- 
rate us from God. The greatest danger and 
the greatest misfortune is sin. Should we not 
thank God, who sent Jesus Christ into an 
ignorant and sinful world, that we might be 
saved from ignorance and sin ? 

I will next explain to you the meaning of 
the word Christ. Christ is a Greek word, and 
means anointed. Perhaps you know, that in 
ancient times, it was the custom, when a per- 
son was declared to be a king, or prince, to 
pour oil upon his head, or anoint him. This 
was a ceremony which was used in making him 
a king, and a sign that he was a king. God 
anointed Jesus to be a king ; but he did not 
anoint him with oil, but with what was more 
precious, with goodness, with holiness, and 
with the power of working miracles, such as 
causing the blind to see, and raising the dead 
to life. This is what the Apostle Peter means, 



SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 51 

when he says, " God anointed Jesus of Naza- 
reth with the Holy Ghost, and with power." 
His great goodness and his great power 
showed that he was a king ; not a king to 
command armies, and wear splendid clothes, 
and live in a fine palace, but a much more glo- 
rious king, a spiritual king, that is, a king to 
govern the spirits, or souls, of men, and to give 
them rules of virtue, and to make them happy. 
God anointed Jesus to be such a king ; and 
therefore he is called Christ, or the anointed. 
I hope you will remember this. There are 
many grown people who do not know it ; but 
a child may understand it when it is explained. 
Christ is the most common title of our Saviour, 
Jesus ; and when we say Jesus Christ, we 
mean Jesus whom God anointed with good- 
ness, and wisdom, and power, to be the king, 
or ruler, of the souls of men. 

The other title of Jesus which is used in the 
text is Lord. Lord means master, or one who 
has authority, whether the authority is greater 
or less. God is called Lord, because he is the 
Master of all things, and his dominion is over 
all. Jesus is called Lord, because he is the 
Master of Christians, and has authority over 



52 SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 

them, and gives them commandments. And 
you very well know, that men who have au- 
thority and dignity are often called lords. 
But when Christians say, " our Lord," they 
generally mean Jesus Christ, who is their 
Master in an especial manner, and whose teach- 
ings and laws they mean to hear and obey. 

I wish you now to remember carefully, that 
the words " our Lord Jesus Christ," mean our 
Master, Jesus, whom God made king, or prince, 
of our souls. Jesus is the name, and Lord, 
and Christ, are the two titles. And the name 
Jesus means a saviour, or one who saves. 

There are several other titles by which 
Jesus is called in the New Testament, but 
those which I have already explained are 
enough for your memory at present. And the 
reason of my explaining to you those, is, that 
when you hear them, you may be able to think 
of the important truths which they signify. 
Whenever you hear the name of " Jesus," 
think that he came to save men from their 
sins, by doing all that was possible to make 
them good and holy. Whenever you hear 
the title " Christ," think that he was anointed 
by his heavenly Father with the spiritual oil 






SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 53 

of perfect goodness and wonderful power, to be 
the prince of the souls of men. Whenever 
you hear the title " Our Lord," think that the 
same Saviour and Prince is your Master and 
Teacher, whom you ought to love and rever- 
ence and obey, because his lessons are wise, 
and his laws are kind, and to obey him is the 
same thing as to be happy in your mind and 
soul, as long as you live in this world, and for- 
ever after in the world to come. 

If these are your thoughts when you hear 
the name or the titles of Jesus, you will al- 
ways use them yourselves in a serious and 
proper manner, and never in the very improper 
and profane manner in which you sometimes 
hear them used, I am afraid, by children, and 
even by men, who ought to know better. 
My children, the names of God, our Father, 
and of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour, are 
holy names, blessed names ; and they never 
ought to be spoken but in solemnity and love, 
by children or by men. Is the name of God 
who made you, God who preserves you every 
moment, God who can make you die whenever 
he pleases, a name to be pronounced by you in 
thoughtless sport or in wretched anger ? I 



54 SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 

trust that it never will be. I pray that it never 
may be. And is the name of the kind and 
holy Jesus, whom God the Father sent to 
teach men their duty, and save them from their 
sins, and show them the way to heaven, and 
who loved men so much that he was willing to 
die, and did die, rather than not do everything 
to save them, — and who now lives with God 
in heaven, and will be our Judo-e when we 
die, — is his name a name to be used rudely or 
profanely ? Surely not, you will say. I be- 
seech you then, never so to use it. Never be 
tempted or provoked so to use it. Let his 
grace be with you, to keep you from such a 
sin. 

Jesus loves little children, and little children 
should love him. Though God has exalted 
him to be greater than angels, he once was a 
little child himself. Yes, he once was a little 
child. He has been rocked to sleep, as you 
have been, in a mother's arms. He has been 
subject, as you now are, to parental authority. 
It is very interesting to me, and, I think, it 
must be so to you, to learn from the Bible, 
that our gracious and wonderful Saviour was 
once a little child ; and in my next sermons 



SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 55 

I intend to speak to you concerning the infan- 
cy and childhood of Jesus Christ. And I now 
pray, that his grace may be with you all, and at 
all times ; in your childhood, to keep you inno- 
cent ; in your youth and manhood, to make 
you virtuous and holy ; and in the hour of 
death, to fill your hearts with peace and hope, 
and to prepare you for his presence, and the 
presence of his Father. 



SERMON VI. 



INFANCY OF JESUS. 

And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, 
filled with wisdom; and the grace of god was 

UPON HIM. 

You will find those words, my children, in 
the second chapter of the Gospel of Luke, the 
fortieth verse. They tell you how wise and 
how good Jesus Christ was when he was 
young, and how much he was beloved. They 
inform you that, as he grew older, he grew 
wiser, that is, that his soul grew as well as 
his body. 

There is but little said in those histories of 
our Saviour, which we call the Gospels, of his 
infancy and early life. Only two of the Gos- 
pels say anything of that period. This is 
because the after part of his life was more im- 
portant. But still the short accounts which 
we have of his birth and his tender years are 
quite interesting. I do not doubt that you 
have found them interesting, when you have 



SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 57 

read them, or have heard them read; and 
very profitable too, when they have been ex- 
plained to you by your parents or teachers. 

You remember that Jesus was born in a 
town called Bethlehem. It is also the town 
where his forefather, King David, was born, 
and where he lived when he was a boy, and 
tended his father's flocks of sheep. Bethle- 
hem is situated a few miles to the south of 
Jerusalem, and on the ridge or top of a hill, 
looking down on a deep and beautiful valley. 
In this valley, where young David used to 
watch the sheep of his father Jesse, there 
were shepherds " keeping watch over their 
flocks by night," when suddenly a glorious 
light shone round about them, and angels of 
heaven appeared to them, and sang an anthem 
of sweet music, and told them that the Saviour 
was born in Bethlehem. 

Now I wish you to observe, my children, 
\hat the first persons who were told of the 
brth of the Saviour were not kings, or gener- 
al?, or what are called great people, but shep- 
herds, poor shepherds, who never thought or 
dreamed that angels would ever speak to them 
in this world, or that they would ever be 



58 SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 

chosen to be the first visitors of the infant 
Redeemer. But God saw fit to choose them, 
and they were the most proper persons to be 
chosen for this purpose. They were humble ; 
and God always loves the humble, and does 
not love the proud. They were peaceful. 
They were peacefully tending their peaceful 
flocks ; and he whom they were chosen to visit 
was peaceful, and came to make the world 
peaceful, and was called the Prince of Peace. 
And the song which the angels sung in the sky 
that night was a song of peace, — peace on 
earth and good will toward men. How proper 
it was, then, that humble and peaceful shep- 
herds should be first told of the birth of the 
infant Jesus, and should be the first to see 
him. You may be sure that now, also, God 
always prefers those who are humble and 
peaceful and good ; and that he will tell their 
the best things ; and that they will be the first 
to see Jesus Christ in heaven, just as tie 
shepherds were the first to see him on earth 

When the angel told the shepherds to go aid 
see the child Jesus, he gave them a sign by 
which they might know him. He told tiem 
that they would find the babe lying in a 



SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 59 

manger, which is the place in a stable from 
which cattle eat their food. The shepherds 
might have supposed that Jesus was to be 
found in some rich chamber, lying in a soft 
bed ; but the angel told them that he was in a 
very different place, — in a manger. This was 
so strange, that the sign could not be mistaken. 
So they went in haste to the inn at Bethlehem ; 
and when they came to the part of the inn 
which was used as a stable, they found the 
child, just as the angels had said. There was 
his mother Mary, and Joseph, and there, in a 
manger, was the blessed child Jesus. So the 
shepherds were certain that this child w r as the 
Saviour ; and though it must have seemed a 
poor place in which he w^as lying, yet they 
were so glad to have found him, that they 
" returned, glorifying and praising God for all 
the things that they had heard and seen." 

Now this is something else which I want 
you to think of, — the place, I mean, where 
the infant Saviour was lying. It was a man- 
ger. When Joseph and Mary came to lodge 
at Bethlehem, there was no room for them in 
the best part of the inn ; and therefore, as 
they were poor, and could not pay for any 



60 SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 

better lodging, they were obliged to go to that 
part where the beasts of burden were kept ; 
and there Jesus was born, and there his mother 
put him in a manger, which was the only 
cradle she could find for him. Not one of you 
was ever laid in so poor a cradle as this. But 
do you suppose that God loved Jesus the less, 
because he was lying on straw ? No. Well, 
then, do you suppose that God loves any child 
the less, whose parents may be poor, and who 
may be obliged to sleep in a mean cradle or 
bed, and wear coarse clothes instead of fine 
ones ? It is not possible, is it, that God should 
think riches of any consequence, when he suf- 
fered his well-beloved Son, Jesus, to be born in 
poverty, and to be laid in a manger ? The 
glory of the Lord shone as brightly round 
about the shepherds, and the angels of heaven 
sung as gladly and sweetly, as if Jesus had 
been lying on down and silk and gold, instead 
of on straw. Let the manger of the infant 
Jesus, then, as it was a sign to the shepherds, 
be a sign to you also. Let it be a sign to you 
that God loves poor children just as well as 
those who are not poor ; and that God's angels 
watch over the mean cradles of poor children, 



SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 61 

just as carefully as over the handsome and 
comfortable cradles of those who are not poor. 
And let the manger of Jesus be a sign to you, 
never to despise poor children, and never to 
look down upon them as if they were beneath 
you ; for Jesus himself was poor. He was 
poor when he was a child ; and though he 
grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with 
God and man, he never grew to be rich. He 
was always poor. I say then, let his manger 
be a sign to you not to despise the poor, and 
not to be proud of any of those things which 
money can buy. All that God loves and re- 
gards with favor is goodness ; and goodness is 
something which money cannot buy. Love 
and respect goodness wherever you see it, 
whether in a poor child or a rich one. If a 
child is wicked, avoid him, or reprove him, 
whether he is rich or poor. But do not avoid 
him, or behave proudly to him, merely because 
he is poor. Christ, your Saviour, was poor. 
Let his manger be a sign to you of all those 
things of which I have told you. 

Forty days after Jesus was born, his par- 
ents brought him to the temple at Jerusalem, 
to present him to the Lord, according to a 



62 SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 

Jewish custom ; and while they were there, a 
good old man by the name of Simeon took 
the child in his arms, and thanked God, and 
said that he was now ready to die in peace, 
because he had seen the Saviour of the world. 
And an aged prophetess by the name of 
Anna, who was there, spoke also to the same 
purpose. 

After this, some wise men from a country 
east of Jerusalem came to Bethlehem, guided 
by a star, to see the infant Jesus. And when 
they found him, they paid him great reverence, 
and offered him costly presents. So you see 
that although Jesus was born in poverty, there 
were good and wise people who came to visit 
him, as well as simple shepherds. Poverty 
keeps away proud and showy people, but not 
those who are good and wise. 

At this time the kin a; of the Jews was a 
proud bad man, named Herod. When he 
heard that a child was born who was to be 
king of the Jews, he thought that an earthly 
king like himself was meant, and therefore he 
was afraid that this child might take away his 
kingdom from him, and he was resolved to 
have him killed. So he charged the wise men 



SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 63 

of the East to let him know when they had 
found the child ; for he pretended that he 
wished to pay him reverence likewise. But 
the wise men went back to their own country, 
without letting Herod know what he wanted ; 
and Herod was so angry at being thus disap- 
pointed, that he ordered all the little children 
of Bethlehem who were under two years of 
age to be killed, in order that Jesus might be 
slain among them. O, what weeping, and 
wailing, and dreadful misery there was among 
the distracted mothers of Bethlehem, on that 
dark day when their little innocent children 
were torn away from them by the order of 
that cruel king, and all killed ! How much 
sorrow and woe have been caused in the world 
by pride and ambition ! And yet, after all 
this bloodshed, Herod did not gain his point ; 
for Joseph was warned of the danger in a 
dream, and he took the young child Jesus and 
his mother, by night, and fled with them into 
a country many miles to the south, called 
Egypt, where they stayed in safety till Herod 
died. 

You see by this, that the troubles of our 
Saviour began very early ; for while he was a 



64 SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 

tender infant, he was forced to wander from 
his native country. He had enemies who 
wished to kill him, even when he was in his 
cradle. 

But at last Herod died ; and then Joseph 
took the child Jesus again and Mary his 
mother and brought them back to the land of 
Israel. They did not stay in Bethlehem ; but 
went on to the northern part of the Holy 
Land, to a city called Nazareth, which was 
the city where Joseph and Mary had lived 
before. This was a quiet place, situated on 
the slope of a hill, with other hills rising up all 
around it. Here the holy family rested in 
peace ; and here the holy child Jesus passed 
the time of his childhood, among the green 
and silent hills, without being troubled by bad 
kings, who had probably now forgotten all 
about him. It was a fit spot for such a lovely 
flower, such a pure soul to grow in, — it was 
so still, so solemn, so beautiful, among those 
hills, which rose up about Nazareth, and shut 
it out from the world. The history of Luke 
tells us no particulars of the growth of the 
mind and spirit of Jesus, but he gives us 
the simple fact that he constantly improved. 



SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 65 

" And the child Jesus grew," he says, " and 
waxed strong in spirit, filled with w r isdom ; and 
the grace of God was upon him." That is, 
he used his mind, and meditated and studied, 
and read the Scriptures, and thought much of 
God and of virtue and of heaven and of 
doing good ; and therefore his mind grew 
strong and full of wisdom, and the love and 
favor of his Father, God, were upon him and 
all round about him, like the pure light and 
air of the hill country where he lived. How 
must his mother, as she pressed him to her 
heart, have rejoiced in such a child ! How 
everybody must have loved him ! 

My children, you are not called to the 
same wonderful work of suffering and salva- 
tion to which Jesus was called. But you are 
called to " glory and virtue," to piety and 
wisdom, to God and heaven ; and that is a 
high calling. You are only children ; but you 
have minds, and you have souls. Jesus was 
once a child. Behold him in Nazareth. See 
how he grew in wisdom and goodness, and 
how the grace of God was upon him. You 
can grow in wisdom and goodness ; and then 
the grace of God will be upon you. God will 



66 SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 

love you ; men will love you ; angels will love 
you ; you will be the best of blessings to your 
parents ; — and, though I am but preaching to 
children, I know that I speak to the heart of 
every parent also, when I say, that of all the 
blessings which a father or a mother can have, 
the greatest blessing is a virtuous child. 

From this early period of our Saviour's life, 
till he was thirty years old, there is only one 
event recorded of him ; and this event took 
place when he was twelve years of age. But 
I must relate this to you, and make some re- 
marks upon it, in another sermon. 



SERMON VII. 



CHILDHOOD OF JESUS. 

And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in 
favor with God and man. 

My dear children may remember that I took 
some words very similar to these for the text 
of my last sermon. I take these words for the 
text of the present sermon, from the second 
chapter of Luke, fifty-second verse, because I 
am going to speak again of the early part of 
the life of our Saviour, and because I want 
children to bear in mind especially, that when 
he was a child, he kept improving in wisdom 
and goodness. 

There are many children who care much 
more about growing larger and taller, than 
they do about growing better. I wish that all 
children might consider that Jesus increased 
in wisdom, as he increased in stature. I wish 
that all children would increase every day, as 
Jesus did, in favor with God and man. They 
will grow fast enough in stature, or size, with- 



68 SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 

out thinking at all about it ; and will not grow 
any faster, if they think about it ever so much. 
But they will not grow in wisdom, without 
thinking and taking pains about that; and it is 
only their growth in wisdom which will gain 
them the favor of God and man. 

I have already said, that between the time 
of the infancy of Jesus and the time of his 
beginning to teach, when he was thirty years 
old, we have the account of only one event of 
his life, which was at the age of twelve. That 
is to say, we have but one account, and a short 
one, of the childhood of Jesus. It is recorded 
in a few verses at the end of the second chapter 
of the Gospel of Luke. But though the story 
is short, it is interesting, and contains a great 
deal for you to think about. Give me your 
attention, and hear how the story begins. 

" Now his parents went to Jerusalem, every 
year, at the feast of the passover." This is the 
first sentence. And why did they go to Jeru- 
salem every year at that time ? Because their 
ancient law-giver Moses had, a long while ago, 
commanded all Jews to do so ; and whatever 
Moses had commanded was a law to the Jews. 
It was the law of Moses, that all the men 



SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 69 

among the Jews should keep the feast of the 
passover, and two other great feasts, at the 
place which the Lord should choose ; and this 
place was Jerusalem. The feast of the pass- 
over was a time of rejoicing which lasted seven 
days, and which put the Jews in mind of the 
escape of their forefathers out of the land of 
Egypt. So you see that the parents of Jesus 
went to Jerusalem at the feast of the passover, 
because it was the Jewish law. The law did 
not oblige women to go, indeed ; but it did not 
forbid their going ; and therefore they often 
went, because it was more pleasant for them 
to go with their fathers and brothers, husbands 
and sons, than to stay at home alone. How 
full the city of Jerusalem must have been at 
the time of the great religious feasts ; and espe- 
cially at the feast of the passover, or unleav- 
ened bread, which was the greatest of all ! 
And w T hat crowds of people there must have 
been in the roads, from all parts of the country, 
travelling to the holy temple ! 

I suppose that people who lived in the same 
town, or the same part of the country, joined 
together at these times, and travelled in com- 
pany. They would take tents with them, if 



70 SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 

they lived at a distance from Jerusalem, and 
provisions, and beasts of burden to carry what- 
ever was necessary. In short, they would form 
a caravan ; such as those which now travel 
from place to place in Eastern countries, about 
which you have doubtless read. This is a 
more convenient, and a far safer mode of trav- 
elling in those countries, than travelling alone. 
So many people together can help each other, 
and defend each other against robbers. I sup- 
pose then, that it was with such a caravan, or 
large company of travellers, that the parents 
of Jesus went up from Nazareth to Jerusalem, 
at the time of the story. 

And what was that time ? Listen to the next 
sentence. "And when he was twelve vears 
old, they went up to Jerusalem after the custom 
of the feast." It was when Jesus was twelve 
years old, that he went up with his parents to 
the feast of the pass over, according to the 
Jewish custom. But why did he go particular- 
ly at that acre ? Because it was at the a^e of 
twelve that the Jewish children were especial- 
ly instructed in the ceremonies of the Jewish 
religion, and that they began to take part in 
the festivals, and to be considered as strictly 



SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 71 

under the Jewish law. According to this cus- 
tom, therefore, it was, that Jesus went up at 
this time to the feast of the passover. 

The history goes on to say, that, " when 
they had fulfilled the days," — that is, when 
they had finished the religious duties of the 
seven days of the feast, — " as they returned, 
the child Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem ; 
and Joseph and his mother knew not of it." 
Jesus was so old and so prudent, that his par- 
ents permitted him, it is likely, to go about, 
without their always going with him ; and 
when they left Jerusalem, they supposed that 
he would know it, and would join himself to 
their caravan. So they were not troubled 
when they set out, although they did not see 
him. They supposed him to be somewhere in 
the company of townspeople and friends who 
made up the caravan, and so they went on to- 
ward Nazareth a whole day's journey. But 
when evening came, they began to be sur- 
prised that he did not appear ; for they sup- 
posed that now, as the whole company had 
halted for the night, he would come to their 
tent. They felt uneasy, and went about anx- 
iously among the tents of their relations and 



72 SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 

acquaintance, hoping to find him there. " And 
when they found him not, they turned back 
again to Jerusalem, seeking him." Thus two 
days were spent ; for as they had travelled a 
day's journey from Jerusalem, it took then 
another day to get back again. But on the 
next day, or, as the account says, " after three 
days," they found him. 

Do you not think they felt glad when they 
found him ? Indeed they must have felt very 
glad. You have heard, or perhaps you have 
known of parents losing their children for a 
time ; and how grieved and distressed they are 
all that time, looking about everywhere, and 
fancying all kinds of terrible accidents. And 
you know how happy they are at last when 
their children are found. Just so must the 
parents of Jesus have felt happy, when they 
found him at Jerusalem. 

You know where they found him. Not 
among idle companions, but " in the temple, 
sitting in the midst of the doctors," or teachers 
of the Jewish law and religion, "both hearing 
them, and asking them questions." He was 
so much engaged in learning all he could from 
the wise men of his nation, that he had not 



SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 73 

thought of other things ; and probably this was 
the reason that he had not joined the caravan 
of Nazareth, when it departed from Jerusalem. 

This scene, of the child Jesus in the temple, 
is sometimes called " Christ disputing with the 
doctors." But I think it is improper to call it 
so, and gives a wrong idea of his conduct at 
that time. The Bible does not say that he 
disputed with the doctors, but that he heard 
them, and asked them questions. When he 
was older, indeed, he did dispute with them, 
and found fault with them ; but now that he 
was a child, he sat modestly among them, and 
heard them attentively, and asked them ques- 
tions, when it was proper to do so. His ques- 
tions were so wise, and his answers so full of 
sense, that " all who heard him were astonished 
at his understanding and answers." 

His parents were amazed also ; and his 
mother, though she was so glad to find him, 
could not help telling him how much they had 
suffered in missing him ; and so she said to 
him, u Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? 
Behold, thy father and I have sought thee sor- 
rowing." Jesus, who knew what an important 
work he had to do for his Heavenly Father, 



74 SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 

answered, " Why did ye seek me ? Do ye 
not know that I must be about my Father's 
business ? " We are told that his parents did 
not fully understand this answer ; which is not 
surprising, for they did not understand what he 
was going to be. 

But now that Jesus knew his parents wished 
him to return home with them, he was very 
willing to go ; for he was perfectly obedient to 
them. " And he went down with them, and 
came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them." 

My children, I wish you to observe particu- 
larly these last words, — he u tv as subject unto 
them" Jesus was subject to his parents ; that 
is, he minded all they said, and assisted them 
all he could, and obeyed them. Obedience to 
parents — as I have told you in a former ser- 
mon — is an important duty and an excellent 
virtue ; and here you have an example of it in 
Jesus. Remember that Jesus, when he was 
young, obeyed his parents. He no doubt 
knew by heart that commandment, which says, 
" Honor thy father and thy mother." And he 
not only knew it, but he kept it. Will you not 
also keep it, my children ? Only think how 
much you do when you obey your good and 



SEKMONS TO CHILDREN. 75 

careful parents. You not only obey them, but 
you obey God, by keeping one of his com- 
mandments ; and you not only do this, but you 
follow the example of your Saviour, who, when 
he was a child, was subject unto his parents. 
And if you are required to work for them, to 
work with your hands, never be afraid or 
ashamed to work ; for Jesus, when he was 
young, labored for his parents ; and you ought 
not to be ashamed to do what he did. His par- 
ents were poor. Joseph was a mechanic — a 
carpenter. There is no doubt, therefore, that 
Jesus, as he was subject to his- parents, labored 
for them. You do not suppose that his dignity 
or his real glory was made less by this labor. 
I do not. To me, the sight of the child Jesus, 
obedient to his parents and working for them 
in that retired village of Nazareth, is as pleas- 
ant a sight as that of the same child Jesus con- 
versing with the wisest men in the great city 
of Jerusalem. A child obedient to his parents, 
and, if necessary and proper, industriously 
working for them, is one of the finest sights 
which can be seen in this world ; — much 
finer, I think, than that of a child dressed in 
the finest clothes that can be made, and doing 



76 SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 

nothing. I would rather see a dutiful and in- 
dustrious boy, any time, than the idle son of a 
governor or of a king. 

And now, children, you perceive that this 
account of the childhood of Jesus, though it is 
short, is full of instruction for you. It tells 
you, what I hope you will faithfully remember ; 
that when he was a child, he was so wise that 
he could converse with the teachers of Jerusa- 
lem, and yet so humble and affectionate, that 
he was subject to his poor parents at Nazareth. 

After this account, we do not hear anything 
more of the history of our Saviour till he was 
thirty years of age, when he was baptized by 
John, and began to teach publicly, and to work 
miracles. But there is no doubt that he was 
always as dutiful to his parents as he was in 
his childhood, and that he always loved them. 
It is true, that while he was publicly laboring 
for our salvation, he thought more about that 
great work of his Father in heaven than 
about his family ; and it was important that he 
should. But this work only lasted a year or 
two ; and even at that time his love for his 
mother w T as as strong as ever, as I can show to 
you by one event. If you will listen to me a 



SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 77 

moment longer, I will tell you what this event 
was. 

I have just been telling you about the first 
time that Jesus went up to the passover at Je- 
rusalem. Well, it was about twenty years 
after this, that he went up there for the last 
time. The first time, he went up with his 
parents and relations, to be instructed in the 
law, and to take his youthful part in the cere- 
monies of the feast, and to eat of the paschal 
lamb, which was one of those ceremonies. 
The last time, he went up with his disciples, to 
complete the law, and, like a lamb himself, to 
be bound and slain by his enemies. Joseph, 
who was called his father, was now dead, most 
probably ; for we are told nothing of him. 
And we are not told, in so many words, that 
his mother went up with him to Jerusalem; 
but she was there. Yes, his mother was there. 
When he was hanging on that dreadful cross 
— and all his disciples but one had left him and 
fled — his mother did not leave him — she 
stood right under the cross — she and the be- 
loved disciple — while enemies and soldiers 
were mocking, and her innocent son was dying. 
And he — Jesus — in the midst of his cruel 



78 SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 

torments, thought of his mother and that disci- 
ple. He looked at them. He spoke to them. 
He said to his mother, " Woman, behold thy 
son"; — and to the disciple, u Behold thy 
mother ! " He told the disciple to be like a 
son to his mother; to be affectionate to her; 
to take care of her. And the disciple obeyed 
him. From that hour he took her to his own 
home. 

Did not this show that Jesus loved his 
mother till he died ? How beautiful is this 
affection ! How brightly it joins with all the 
heavenly greatness and goodness of his char- 
acter. Children, I beseech you, by the love 
of Christ, and by the beauty of his example, to 
love your parents, to obey them, to be subject 
unto them. So will you increase in wisdom, 
and in favor with God and man. 



SEEMON VIII. 



THE NOTICE TAKEN OF CHILDREN BY 
JESUS. 

And he took them up in his arms, put his hands upon 
them, and blessed them. 

I have already related to children what is 
told us in the Sacred History concerning the 
infancy and childhood of Jesus Christ. When 
he was about thirty years of age, he began his 
public ministry, that is, he began to teach 
men their duty, and inform them of God and 
heaven, and of all that is most important for 
men to know ; and he began, also, to do won- 
derful works, such as curing the sick, and 
causing blind people to see, and raising the 
dead to life, in order that men might believe 
that he was really sent from God. He taught 
more wisely than any one had ever taught be- 
fore, because God gave him more wisdom than 
he had ever given to any one before. God 
also gave him power to perform the wonderful 
works which he did ; for no man could have 
performed such wonderful works, unless God 
had been with him to help him. 



80 SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 

It might easily enough be supposed, that 
having such great works to do, and having so 
much wisdom and power from God, he w x ould 
have no time to attend to little children, or 
even to think of them, though he was once a 
little child himself. But you know that he 
did think of them, and did attend to them. 
You have the happiness to know, not only 
that Jesus was once a little child, but that 
when he became a wise and mighty teacher, 
he never forgot little children, but loved them, 
and spoke very kindly of them, and treated 
them very tenderly. You know that Jesus 
took little children into his arms, and blessed 
them. This is told you by the Evangelist 
Mark, in the words of my text, which you may 
find in the tenth chapter of his Gospel, six- 
teenth verse. You may also read an account 
of the same event in the Gospels of Matthew 
and Luke. 

But as I am going to relate to you all that 
Jesus said of children, so far as it is recorded 
in the Bible, I shall remind you of an event 
which took place a little while before that 
which is mentioned in the text. Attend to 
me, and I will tell you how and when it was. 



SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 81 

Our Lord was travelling through the prov- 
ince of Galilee, in the northern part of the 
Holy Land, and was going on towards Jeru- 
salem, to be present at the feast of the pass- 
over ; and he knew that his enemies would 
take him when he arrived there, and put him 
to death on the cross. His disciples were 
travelling with him. They knew that their 
Master was going to a city where he had many 
violent enemies, and they had heard him say 
more than once, and very solemnly, that he 
should be delivered up into the hands of those 
enemies, who would kill him. This made them 
quite sorrowful ; but they could hardly believe 
that one so good, so wise, and so powerful as 
their Master was, would really be slain ; for 
they had made up their minds that he would 
soon appear as a great king and a conquering 
warrior, and they could not imagine how he 
could permit himself to be taken and slain. 
They supposed there was something in this 
which they could not understand, but which 
would be made plain by and by. So they 
threw off their sorrow as well as they could, 
and talked of the splendid kingdom which they 
still believed their Master would soon establish 
6 



82 SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 

in Jerusalem. Presently they began to dis- 
pute among themselves, which should be the 
greatest in that kingdom, — who should have 
the highest offices, and make the most show, 
and be treated with the most respect. This 
was wrong, — quite wrong, — especially when 
we consider what an example of peacefulness 
and humility they had before their eyes in 
their Master himself. They were good men ; 
but, like many other men, they had ambition 
and pride, and it took them a great while to 
get rid of those faults. And they were too apt 
to think about honors and riches when they 
thought about the kingdom of Christ, or, as it 
was also called, the kingdom of heaven ; and 
it was a long time before they fully understood, 
that the kingdom of their Master, or the king- 
dom of heaven, was a spiritual kingdom. 

Jesus heard his disciples disputing as they 
were walking along, and he knew what they 
were disputing about, and he was grieved that 
they should show such unamiable and worldly 
dispositions ; but he said nothing to them at 
that time, till they came to Capernaum. This 
was a city situated near the shore of the Lake, 
or Sea, of Galilee. When they had arrived 



SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 83 

there, and had gone into a house, Jesus asked 
them, " What was it that ye disputed among 
yourselves by the way?" The disciples saw 
that he looked as if he was not well pleased 
with them, and they held their peace. Then 
Jesus sat down, and called the twelve disci- 
ples, and endeavored to make them understand 
and feel that the humblest disciple, and not 
the proudest, would be the first ; and that he 
who should do the most good to his fellow 
disciples, and wait upon them the most kindly, 
would be the greatest among them. u If any 
man," said he, u desire to be first, the same 
shall be last of all, and servant of all." And 
that he might show them yet more plainly 
what he meant, he called a child to him who 
was in the room, — no doubt a good and 
modest little child, who never thought he 
should be noticed by such a company of wise 
and grave men, — and he set this child in the 
midst of them, and took him in his arms, and 
told his disciples, that in order to become really 
great in his kingdom, they must become like 
that little child, that is, as humble and kind 
and artless as that little child. There was no 
ambition, there was no pride, there was no 



84 SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 

jealousy in the bosom of that child, who sat so 
innocently in the arms of Jesus, and in the 
midst of that circle of men ; and Jesus taught 
them in this manner, that they must drive 
away ambition and pride and jealousy from 
their own bosoms, before they could be great 
in his spiritual kingdom. And he told them 
that he should love all those disciples who were 
modest and meek and obedient like that child ; 
and that if any one should despise and hurt 
such good and childlike disciples, it would be 
" better for him that a millstone were hanged 
about his neck, and that he were drowned in 
the depth of the sea." 

You perceive by this example, that Jesus, so 
far from forgetting children, thought so highly 
of them, that he commanded his disciples to 
imitate children, in order to obtain his appro- 
bation and love. I hope, my dear children, 
that you may deserve the notice of your Sav- 
iour, by your modesty and simplicity and 
kindness, and that when you grow up you will 
not lose those good qualities ; for whether we 
are children, or whether we are of riper age, 
it is only those good qualities which will gain 
for us his favor, and make us great in his 
kingdom. 



SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 85 

The next time that Jesus took particular 
notice of children was on this same journey, 
when he had approached nearer to Jerusalem. 
He had left the Lake of Galilee, and looked on 
its beautiful waters for the last time, and had 
crossed over the river Jordan which flows out 
from that lake, and was travelling through 
the towns on its eastern border toward the 
great city. Wherever he went the people 
would flock about him that they might see 
him and hear him, for they believed that he 
was a great prophet. When he came to a 
certain place, the name of which is not men- 
tioned, a number of young children were 
brought to him, that he might lay his hands 
upon them and bless them ; for their parents 
thought that it would do the children good to 
have so holy a person as Jesus touch them and 
pray for them. And here again, I am sorry 
to say, the disciples were in fault. I suppose 
they had forgotten, or what is more likely did 
not take pains enough to understand, what 
their Master had just been saying to them 
about little children, and so, as they thought 
he might be disturbed by having a crowd of 
children around him, and perhaps were a little 



86 SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 

disturbed and put out of temper themselves, 
they spoke sharply to those who brought them 
there, and told them probably to take them 
away again ; which must have caused their 
mothers and friends to feel disappointed and 
distressed. 

But let the mothers be cheerful, and let the 
children be glad. Jesus saw all that was done, 
and he was wiser and kinder than his disciples. 
He heard the disciples speaking so harshly, and 
he saw the mothers moving away so mournful- 
ly, with their downcast little children in their 
hands, and he was very much displeased with 
his disciples indeed. And he said to them, 
" Suffer the little children to come unto me, 
and forbid them not ; for of such is the kingdom 
of God." Seeing those simple children, who 
only came that a holy prophet might speak to 
them and bless them, and seeing those angry- 
looking men by their side, who had been disput- 
ing not long before about high places and offi- 
ces, reminded him with fresh force how much 
better the children received or understood his 
kingdom than the men did, though they did 
not pretend to understand it at all ; and so he 
again spoke to them of the kind of kingdom 



SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 87 

which he came to set up, and told them that 
if they did not receive it as simply and affec- 
tionately and gently as those children did, they 
could not belong to it, or have any part in it. 
" Truly I say unto you," said he, " whosoever 
shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little 
child, he shall not enter therein." And after 
he had said this, he called the children close 
to him, and " took them up in his arms, put his 
hands upon them, and blessed them." What 
he said when he blessed them, we do not ex- 
actly know, for the words of the blessing are 
not written in the history. But he no doubt 
prayed that his heavenly Father would take 
care of them, and keep them in the ways 
of virtue and innocence and peace, and 
bring them at last to his arms in the heaven 
above. 

Now, children, does it not make you love 
your Saviour, when you know how kind he 
was to children, and how much he thought of 
them and loved them ? Can you not see him, 
with the eyes of your mind, looking so mildly, 
and so sweetly, and yet solemnly, too, upon 
those little children of Judaea, when he took 
them up in his arms ? 



88 SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 

" Sweet were his words, and kind his look, 
When mothers round him pressed ; — 
Their infants in his arms he took, 
And on his bosom blessed. 

If he were now on earth, he would take you 
in his arms, as he did those " children who 
lived by the Jordan," and would bless you. 
And if he would love you if he were on earth, 
do you not suppose that he does love you, now 
that he is in heaven ? How can you help 
loving such a Saviour ? 

" Was not our Lord a little child, 
Taught by degrees to pray, 
By father dear and mother mild 
Instructed day by day ? 

" And loved he not of heaven to talk, 
With children in his sight, 
To meet them in his daily walk, 
And to his arms invite ? " 

How, then, I repeat, can you help loving such 
a Saviour ? 

And what shall you do, to make yourselves 
worthy of his love ? Do exactly the same as 
you ought to do to make yourselves worthy of 
the love of God, his Father. Be kind, be obe- 
dient, be good. And as you grow up, do not 
let your goodness go away from you. Keep 



SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 89 

your simplicity, keep your honesty and truth, 
keep your gentleness and kindness ; keep all 
your virtue, and get more and more. Then 
you will be — » that is, your spirits will be — 
always in the spiritual arms of Jesus. 

Indeed, when I see an amiable, peaceful 
child, who loves and obeys his parents, and is 
kind and well disposed to every one, — a child 
who speaks the truth, and dislikes contention 
and quarrelling, and fears to do that which is 
wrong, — I think I see such a child resting in 
the arms of Jesus, and blessed by his sacred 
words. And if such a child should die, — 
though its body would be placed in a coffin, 
and buried in the cold ground, I could not 
mourn as if that child were forever dead, for 
I should believe that its spirit had gone to a 
holier and happier land than the land of Judaea, 
or any other land below ; and that it was rest- 
ing in the arms of Jesus by the side of a ho- 
lier river than the river Jordan or any earthly 
river. You know the name of the land I 
mean, — Heaven. No fighting is there, no en- 
vying nor discord. Tears are all wiped away, 
and hardships and sorrows are forgotten. 

" There every pain and care shall cease, 
And perfect love give perfect peace." 



SEEMON IX. 



A NEW YEAR'S WISH. 

I HAVE NO GREATER JOY THAN TO HEAR THAT MY CHIL- 
DREN WALK IN TRUTH. 

The aged Apostle John, who wrote the 
epistle or letter from which this text is taken, 
which is the fourth verse of the third epistle, 
did not mean by the words " my children " 
young children, for he was writing to grown- 
up people ; but I, in using the same words, do 
mean young children, to whom I intend par- 
ticularly to speak on this first Sunday morning 
of the year. The Apostle John was so old 
when he wrote this letter, having lived prob- 
ably almost a hundred years, that he well 
might speak of grown-up people as his chil- 
dren ; especially if he had taught them a new 
and true religion, and had nourished them up 
in it. And well might such people look upon 
him, with his thin white locks, as their father. 
But for my own part I can only address as 
children those who are really such ; and I can 
say, in the words of St. John, that I " have 



SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 91 

no greater joy than to hear that my children 
walk in truth." If you walk in truth, you 
will walk happily ; and therefore I do not 
know how I can wish you a happy new year, 
my children, in any better manner, than to 
wish that you may this year, and every year 
you live, walk in truth. 

You have doubtless some idea of my mean- 
ing, when I say that I wish you may walk in 
truth. But in order that you may have a yet 
more clear and more distinct idea of it, I will 
express the same wish under four different 
forms. I wish that you may love the truth, 
learn the truth, speak the truth, and live the 
truth. 

1. I wish that you may love the truth. Give 
your approbation to whatever is candid, honest, 
and open. Be always better pleased to see 
things as they are, than as they are not. Do 
not permit yourselves to be pleased with de- 
ceit. Have nothing to do with it, even though 
it may seem to be favorable to you. It can 
never do you anything but harm in the end. 

I cannot ask you to be displeased with 
praise, for praise is often honest, and as useful 
as it is pleasant ; but I can and will ask you 



92 SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 

to be displeased with flattery, that is, with 
praise which is not honest nor true. In this 
sense, love truth more than you love your- 
selves. Love truth more than you love to 
be praised ; more than you love ease ; more 
than you love any earthly advantage. If you 
love truth more than any selfish indulgence, 
then you w T ill be valuable yourself, and will 
feel that you are valuable, and that the love 
of the truth has made you valuable, and that 
you can afford to go without praise, and with- 
out indulgences, because your own truth- 
loving soul is worth more than all those 
things. But if you love praise so much that 
you will have it at any rate, or love money 
or things to eat and drink more than you love 
the truth, then you cannot help feeling mean, 
because you will feel that you have put your 
soul on a level with things which please your 
eyes or your palate, and that in fact you val- 
ue your soul less than you do those things. 
A child, or a man either, must feel mean, and 
must be mean, when he places so little value 
on his own soul. Therefore love the truth 
which gives value to the soul, before all those 
things wdiich please the senses or gratify self- 



SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 93 

ishness, and the intense love of which de- 
grades the soul. 

Love the truth wherever it is to be seen. 
Love it in a stranger as well as in a person 
whom you know. Love it and honor it in 
one who wears coarse clothes as well as in one 
who wears fine clothes. And despise false- 
hood and deceit just as heartily when it is 
dressed in jewels as when it is covered with 
rags. Put vanity and fear behind you, come 
out of the darkness, and stand up in the day- 
light, and love truth. 

2. I wish that you may learn the truth. 
Indeed if you sincerely love the truth, you 
will endeavor to learn it, and you will meet 
with success to all essential purposes. Most 
of the obstacles which hinder people from 
learning the truth come from their not loving 
truth, or from their loving something else 
more than truth. Learn as much truth as 
you can, and when you find that you have 
learned anything which is not true, throw it 
away. Try to get as much truth as possible 
by your own exertions ; but do not refuse help. 
Neither while you are children, nor after you 
are grown up, will you be able to learn the 



94 SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 

needful truth without help. But some are 
more able and better fitted to help you than 
others. Your parents, are your best human 
guides in learning the truth ; far better guides, 
in general, than those who love you not as 
they do ; for much truth comes from love. 
Follow the guidance of your fathers and moth- 
ers, and those whom they choose to be your 
instructors, rather than the guidance of stran- 
gers or your own passions. 

If I should ask you in what book you might 
learn the most truth, you would probably all 
answer, the Bible ; and you would answer 
right. The Bible is the book of God, and 
God is truth. It is in the Bible that you come 
to the knowledge of Jesus Christ, who was 
"full of grace and truth," and taught truth, 
and died for the truth : for he loved truth 
better than life. 

Make it your great object to learn what is 
true, and not merely what is agreeable or what 
seems to suit you. Truth is wisdom, and false- 
hood is folly ; therefore learn wisdom and not 
folly. What can be more foolish than to spend 
time in learning folly ? They who spend their 
time in learning to deceive others, — what do 



SEEMONS TO CHILDREN. 95 

they do ? Why, they waste their time, and 
deceive themselves. How foolish they are ! 
I beseech you to spend your time in learning 
the truth ; for then it will be spent wisely and 
well. 

Seek the aid of your parents and of good 
people. Read that good book, the Bible, and 
other books which teach virtue ; for virtue is 
the highest truth. Mind this, particularly, my 
children, and remember it, that virtue is the 
highest truth. You will often make mistakes 
in after life, I suppose, and think you have 
found the truth when you have not ; but you 
may be sure that you learn the highest truth 
in learning virtue. 

3. I wish that you may speak the truth. 
Speak the truth which you have loved, and 
which you have learned. Do not be afraid of 
speaking it. Be more afraid of speaking a 
falsehood than of being punished in consequence 
of speaking the truth. Speak the truth on all 
occasions when it is proper that you should 
speak at all. Get a steady habit of telling the 
truth, and then you will have a character for 
truth-telling with all who know you ; and how 
delightful it is to find that you are depended 



96 SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 

upon, even by your elders, as tellers of the 
honest truth, and that you have established a 
character which insures respect. A truth-tell- 
ing child is more to be respected than a man 
who does not speak the truth. 

Observe too that it is much safer to speak 
truth than falsehood. Falsehood may pass un- 
detected a few times, but it must be discovered 
at last ; and then, O what shame must be en- 
dured, as well as punishment ! The burning 
shame of detected falsehood, — save yourselves 
from it, my young friends, in the only way you 
can, which is by always speaking the truth. 

Truth will be your friend through life, but 
falsehood can serve you but a little while, and 
with miserable service too. The Bible says the 
same. Hear what it says. " The lip of truth 
shall be established forever ; but a lying tongue 
is but for a moment." You have heard people 
talk of beautiful lips. Perhaps you have heard 
some such remark as this : How beautiful 
that child's lips are ! they are just like coral ! 
Now I tell you that the most beautiful lips are 
the lips which speak the truth, and that they 
are worth all the coral which ever grew in the 
sea. I never read any praise of coral lips in 



SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 97 

the Bible, but I have read praise of lips which 
speak the trnth, — and the highest praise which 
can be given, even that they are delightful to 
God who made them, while false lips, however 
bright their color may be, are hateful to him. 
Listen again. " Lying lips are abomination to 
the Lord ; but they that deal truly are his de- 
light." As you value the confidence of man, 
your own respect, and the love of your heav- 
enly Father, my children, speak the truth. 

4. And, finally, I wish that you may live the 
truth. That is, I wish that truth may shine 
out through your whole life, and be seen in all 
your character and conduct. I certainly wish 
that you may always speak the truth, but I do 
not care that you should speak much about the 
truth ; because I have known persons who 
were in the habit of talking frequently and 
quite in raptures about truth, saying how love- 
ly and excellent it was, and yet who did not 
seem to me to speak and act more truly them- 
selves than many others who did not say so 
much about it. Do not be affected. Do not 
pretend to feel more than you really feel, or to 
be more than you are. Be polite, and consid- 
erate of other people's feelings, but at the same 

7 



98 SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 

time be true. Be true to your faith. Do not 
say a good thing, and afterwards be afraid to 
act it. Do not lend yourselves to help out any 
piece of fraud or low cunning. Be fair and 
frank in all your dealings and proceedings, but 
at the same time gentle and kind ; for truth 
and charity agree together like loving sisters ; 
but truth and rudeness do not aoree together 
at all, but whatever truth does rudeness is sure 
to spoil. Be not rude, but be true ; kind and 
true. Then you will be beloved and respected, 
and you will be happy. And if you care about 
being thought handsome, the best way and the 
only way in your power is to be honest and 
true. In your face and form you cannot be 
different from what God made you. But de- 
ceit and habits of falsehood will so hurt the 
handsomest face, that people will think it no 
longer handsome ; while truth will add beauty 
to the most beautiful. The most celebrated of 
English poets has said the same thing, in words 
so simple that you will understand them at once. 

" O, how much more doth beauty beauteous seem, 
By that sweet ornament which truth doth give ! " 

Bind this sweet ornament about your neck, 






SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 99 

my children, and always wear it, and then you 
need not give yourselves any concern about 
your beauty ; for you must be beautiful in the 
eyes of all who know you. 

Now I have given you my New- Year's 
wish, and may God grant that it be fulfilled ! 
It is that you may walk in truth ; and it was 
explained to you under four divisions or heads, 
which I will repeat to you that you may re- 
member them. I wished that you might love 
the truth, learn the truth, speak the truth, and 
live the truth. Whether we shall meet togeth- 
er on the first Sunday of the next year, I know 
not. How long we shall live together in this 
world, I know not. No one knows. Children 
die, and men die ; and we cannot tell who will 
be called to their last account in the present 
year. But if we walk daily in truth, we have 
the sure promise of God, that we shall walk to- 
gether in the heavenly city, in light and glory, 
and live through the heavenly year, which is 
immortal and eternal. 



SERMON X. 



FAULTS OF CHILDREN. 

Even a child is known by his doings, whether his 
work be pure, and whether it be right. 

This is a wise saying which concerns chil- 
dren ; and it may be found in the Book of 
Proverbs, twentieth chapter, eleventh verse. 
The meaning of it is, that a child, as well as a 
man, is to be known or distinguished by his char- 
acter, his habits, his behavior, his talk ; so that 
you can tell, young as he is, and brief as his 
residence has been in this world, whether his 
work, or the amount of what he does, is pure 
and right, or whether it is impure and wrong. 

Some children are obedient to those whom 
they ought to obey, and some are disobedient ; 
some are disposed to be calm and quiet, and 
some to be peevish and fretful ; some are 
gentle, and some are rude and passionate ; 
some speak the truth always, and some speak a 
great deal of falsehood. Now by all these do- 
ings a child is known. He is not so widely 
known as a man is, because he does not act on 



SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 101 

so wide a stage as a man does ; but still he is 
known. He is known by his playmates and 
schoolmates, and he is known by many grown- 
up people, the friends and acquaintances of his 
family, the neighbors and others. He cannot 
help being known. There are many eyes upon 
him, which must see what he is doing, how he 
conducts himself; and therefore there are many 
minds which form an opinion concerning his 
work and his conduct. 

It is important that you should be aware of 
this, my children, and that you should govern 
yourselves accordingly. It is important that 
you should be aware, that even at your early 
time of life people observe you and have their 
thoughts and feelings about you. You are 
sometimes too apt to imagine that people are 
taking notice of your clothes, when in fact they 
are not ; but you may depend upon it, that 
many persons who do not care the least 
whether you are dressed in one way or an- 
other, cannot fail to mark your behavior, and 
are pleased to see you behave well and dis- 
pleased to see you behave ill. Surely you 
desire to give pleasure rather than pain. 
Surely you prefer to be thought agreeable 



102 SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 

rather than disagreeable, and good rather than 
bad. You must esteem it more pleasant to 
go about with an excellent character among 
friends, than with a poor character among 
those who dislike you. I take it for granted, 
that you would all of you rather be loved than 
not be loved. But in order to be loved, you 
must attract and deserve love ; and in order to 
deserve love, you must be virtuous and amia- 
ble ; and in order to be virtuous and amiable, 
you must avoid those faults to which you are 
liable, and amend those faults which you may 
have already contracted. It is therefore a 
friendly act to warn you kindly of your faults ; 
and this is what I propose to do in the present 
sermon. 

I am not one of those who think that children 
have no faults. I love children. I love the 
freshness, the simplicity, the openness of heart, 
the tenderness of heart, the comparative inno- 
cence, and other fair qualities which are so 
generally the characteristics of childhood. But 
I remember what children were when I was a 
child, and I see w T hat they are now ; and I 
know that they have faults. Indeed it would 
be a wonder if they had not. And if I should 



SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 103 

tell you, my children, that you had no faults, 
your own consciences and recollections would 
contradict me, and tell you that I was mista- 
ken. If I should say to you, my children, you 
are altogether without spot or stain ; your 
thoughts and feelings are all exactly right ; in 
order to do what you ought, you have only to 
do what you please, and woe to those who 
check you and your sweet impulses ; you have 
no sins, no selfishness, and never would have, 
if your elders would only let you alone ; you 
are, in short, angels upon earth ; — if I should 
hold this language to you, you might for a mo- 
ment, perhaps, be pleased with the flattery, 
but the next moment you would blush and 
hang your heads with uneasy consciousness, 
and wonder how I could be either so ignorant, 
or so regardless of fact, as to address you in so 
strange a manner. It is not improbable that 
some of you might call to mind something 
which you had done wrong this very day, 
which would itself prove my lofty praises to be 
empty and worthless. I think so well of you, 
that I believe you would prefer honest words 
from my mouth to flattery ; and it is only 
because I love you, and wish you to become 



104 



SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 



better by amending your faults, that I speak 
to you concerning them. 

I shall speak of a few of the faults which ap- 
pear to me to be most common to children. 
But in doing this, I do not mean to imply that 
all of you are chargeable with each of the 
faults which I shall name. Some of you will 
probably be blameless of one specified fault 
and some of another. Your own consciences 
must tell you of what you are guilty, and of 
what you are not guilty. 

1. The first fault which I shall mention is 
that of wilfulness. Children are very apt to 
be wilful ; to set up their own will in opposi- 
tion to the will of those whose right and whose 
duty it is to direct and govern them. To be 
sure, it is quite natural that you should prefer 
your own will and your own way. But then 
your will is often unreasonable, and your way 
dangerous ; and they who are older and wiser 
than you are know, that if you were always to 
have your own will and take your own way, 
the consequences would be highly injurious 
not only to others but to yourselves. If there 
is to be order and peace and virtue in a house, 
all who live in it cannot have each one his 



SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 105 

separate will and way ; for the wills and ways 
would clash together and produce endless con- 
fusion. There must be government in that 
house. The wills of some must occasionally 
yield and be given up. Now who ought to 
yield, and give up their wills ? Should the 
old yield to the young, or the young to the 
old ? Should the parent yield to the child, or 
the child to the parent ? Certainly the child 
should yield ? And why ? Because the par- 
ent has more wisdom than the child can have, 
and knows better than the child can, what is 
for the child's good. 

And remember, too, that it is because your 
parents love you, that they sometimes oppose 
your will, and refuse to grant your wishes. 
It is as unpleasant to them to contradict and 
deny you, as it can be to you to be contra- 
dicted and denied ; but they perform this un- 
pleasant duty, because they love you too well 
to let you do what they think would hurt you 
at once, or turn out to your injury in the end. 
You love liberty, you desire to be free. Very 
well. Liberty is good. But so is obedience, 
and so is submission. Liberty is not the only 
good ; and it is not good at all, when it does 



106 SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 

not mind the limits which are set to it, and 
rebels against wisdom and love, which are its 
natural and eternal superiors and guides. 

Try, my dear children, and try hard, if it 
be not easy to you, to bring your wills into 
subjection to the wisdom and love of your 
parents and instructors. Put forth your true 
strength, and try to conquer your own wilful- 
ness. The next time that you feel disposed to 
speak rudely to those who nurture you, or take 
your own way in opposition to their commands 
or wishes, think how much longer they have 
lived than you have, and how much more 
knowledge they have acquired ; think how 
they clothe and feed and instruct you ; think 
how tenderly they love you and watch over 
you, and how readily they would risk their 
lives for your benefit. Think, — and suffer not 
the rude answer to pass the gates of your lips. 
Think, — and then cheerfully and gracefully 
obey. 

2. Another fault to which children are 
liable is a propensity to disturb each other or 
their elders by teasing them. This propensity 
to tease is one branch of the love of mischief, 
that wild and gadding vine with the bitter fruit. 



SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 107 

I would not deny to you one moment of sport 
in its proper season. But sport is sport, and 
pain is pain ; and that ought to be no sport to 
you which gives unnecessary pain to others. 
Who does not know that the peace and enjoy- 
ment of a quiet circle may be most seriously 
troubled by the annoyances of children, who 
persist in annoying, in spite of all entreaty and 
rebuke. Who has not marked the unhappi- 
ness which children cause to each other at 
home and abroad, in the house, and the school, 
and the street, by sneering and jeering and 
ridiculing each other, by withholding some ar- 
ticle of property, by doing some one of the 
hundred vexing things which are signified by 
the word " teasing." Be assured that these are 
all transgressions of the great law of love. You 
do not like to be vexed yourselves, and there- 
fore you ought not to vex others. Some chil- 
dren can better bear to be teased than others, 
and it is well that you should learn to bear it, 
for it is a rough world you live in. But while 
you should endeavor to bear provocation when 
it comes, with as calm and strong a spirit as 
possible, you should resolve not to give provo- 
cation, but to be kind and amiable, and con- 
siderate of the feelings of every one. 



108 SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 

And here I would throw in a word for the 
brute creation. Avoid teasing not only your 
fellow-beings but the inferior animals. God 
made them, and made them for enjoyment. 
See that you imbitter not their lives, their short 
lives, which God gave so kindly. Study their 
habits, for they are curious and interesting. 
Admire their form and structure, for they are 
well adapted to their habits and wants. Ac- 
cept their services, which are many and great. 
But do not tease them. Do not make them 
wish, if they can wish, that they had never 
been born. Show that you deserve your own 
superiority of rank, by treating them gently 
and humanely. 

3. There is a fault, or I should rather call 
it a sin, which is to be observed in some chil- 
dren, but from which I hope you are free, for 
I cannot think of it without indignation, — I 
mean the habit of tyrannizing over inferiors in 
age or strength. I believe I state no more 
than the bare fact, when I say, that many 
have had their days of childhood almost spoiled 
for them, by the sufferings of mind and body 
which have been inflicted on them by some 
little tyrant of the neighborhood. A grievous 



SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 109 

sin is the sin of tyranny, and perhaps as often 
to be met with among children as among men. 
Sometimes one will tyrannize over many, and 
sometimes many will join together to tyrannize 
over one. But in all cases, tyranny is a griev- 
ous and hateful sin, — it causes so much un- 
happiness ! Even children of the softer sex 
are not free from it. Even little girls will 
sometimes combine together to treat with rude 
and cutting neglect some one of their compan- 
ions, because they have some foolish prejudice 
against her, and thus, if she has any feeling, 
make her miserable ; and she all the while 
may be as good a child, and as worthy of notice 
as any of them. Avoid, I beseech you, the 
taint of this sin of tyranny. And let those 
who are free from it themselves frown upon 
it when they see it in others. Discourage it ; 
talk against it ; take the part of those who are 
oppressed by it. As far as you are able, per- 
mit it not to show its hateful form or exercise 
its hateful power. 

And here I will stop ; not because I have 
got through the list of the faults of children, 
but because those which I have named belong 
to one class or family of faults, and because I 



110 SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 

have already said enough for your attention 
and your memory. I have spoken to you as 
your sincere friend, more desirous to improve 
you than to entertain you. It will do you no 
harm, but only good, to be reminded seasonably 
of your imperfections, and to think and reflect 
on them, so that you may be led to amend 
them. Go on, my children, from weakness to 
strength, and from strength to more strength, 
and may the good Spirit of God our Father go 
with you and help you. 



SERMON XL 



A SUMMARY. 
My little children, these things write I UNTO you, 

THAT YE SIN NOT. 

These words are from the First Epistle of 
John, second chapter, first verse. They repre- 
sent, in a brief form, the object of religious 
instruction, whether it be addressed to chil- 
dren or to persons in mature life. The pur- 
pose of the apostle is the purpose of every 
Christian teacher. I have written to you, my 
children, and preached to you from first to 
last that I might keep you from sin, and help 
you to be virtuous and worthy ; and not mere- 
ly that I might entertain you for a few mo- 
ments at a time, with words that should make 
no lasting impression on your minds and hearts. 
I have written to you, and spoken to you, 
" that ye sin not." 

And now that I speak to you once more, it 
is my intention to refresh your memory of 
w T hat has been formerly said to you, by re- 



112 SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 

peating to you the substance of these dis- 
courses, which had for their only design your 
improvement in knowledge and goodness and 
piety. 

1. I taught you in my first discourse that 
you were not here in the world by chance, 
without a Maker ; but that just as certainly as 
a rich musical instrument, for instance a church 
organ, must have been made, and made by a 
being having a mind or intellect, so certainly 
must you have been made, and made by a 
Being having a mind or intellect. I told you 
that as an organ could only be made by some 
one who intended to make it, and knew how to 
make it, and was acquainted with all its various 
parts, so you yourselves could only be made by 
some One who intended to make you, and knew 
how to make you, and was acquainted with all 
the various parts which compose the wonder- 
ful frame of your bodies and the still more 
wonderful frame of your souls. That One is 
God. He made also the earth and the stars 
and everything we behold. He is before all 
other beings and above them all. He is God 
alone. To know him, is to take the first step 
in religious knowledge ; and you will presently 



SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 113 

see how your knowledge of him may keep you 
from sin, and help you to be good. 

2. In my second discourse I exhorted you 
from the words of Solomon, to remember your 
Creator in the days of your youth. I set be- 
fore you the duty of thinking seriously and 
frequently of the Almighty Being who made 
you. I told you that you should think for 
what purpose he made you, and what he 
wishes you to do while you live. To remem- 
ber your Creator is to think of him ; and to 
think of him properly is to reflect upon his 
design and will concerning yourselves. I then 
proceeded to show you that God created you 
to be happy, and to find happiness in goodness. 
These two things cannot be separated. You 
cannot be happy in any way you choose, but in 
the way only which he chooses, which is the 
way of virtue and piety. Although the church 
organ may produce discord, yet it was not built 
to produce discord, but music and harmony ; 
and though you may do wrong and commit 
sin, yet you were not made to do wrong but to 
do right, to be virtuous and to be happy. Thus 
you were taught to perceive how the knowl- 
edge of God as your Creator tends to preserve 

8 



114 SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 

you from sin. As he made you, so did he 
make you to be happy in obeying him ; and to 
obey him is to be virtuous and holy. The 
remainder of this discourse was occupied in 
expounding to you three particular rules of 
goodness. The first of these rules was, To 
love and obey your parents ; the second, To 
speak the truth always ; and the third, To be 
just and kind to all persons. 

3. As I told you in the first sermon, that 
God created you, and in the second, that he 
created you to obey his commandments, and to 
be happy in this obedience, I explained to you 
in the third, that he certainly knew whether 
you obeyed him or not, because he is present 
everywhere throughout his own universe, and 
is perfectly acquainted with everything and 
every being that he has made. To him there 
is no night, and from his vision there can noth- 
ing be hid, — no action, no feeling, no thought. 
The thought that God sees you always, will 
naturally tend to prevent you from sinning in 
his sight ; and will also stimulate vou to do 
good, knowing that he sees you, and seeing, 
will love you. 

4. My fourth sermon was on the duty of 



SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 115 

praying to God. Praying to him is speaking 
to him. You think it right to speak to your 
earthly father, to ask him for what you need ; 
it is right also to speak to your heavenly Fa- 
ther, who is God, to ask him for what you need, 
and to thank him for what he has given you. 
You can speak to God with your thoughts, as 
well as with words, because he hears thoughts 
as well as words. It is right that you should 
pray to him both with your mind and with 
your tongue. He wishes you to pray to him, 
and has promised that he will hear you. And 
when you pray to him, the most important 
gifts which you can ask for, are those virtues 
and good dispositions which will make you his 
well-beloved children. And when you ask for 
them, sincerely and heartily, you will receive 
them. You will be assisted to be virtuous, you 
will be defended from sin. 

5. Those four sermons were on your rela- 
tions and duties to God. In the fifth discourse, 
I spoke to you of his Son, Jesus Christ, who, 
next to God oiir Father, demands our rev- 
erence, gratitude, and love. I spoke to you 
of the great wisdom and power which Jesus 
had from God, and of his great love toward 



116 SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 

mankind, which led him to live and labor for 
their good, and at last to die for them. I then 
explained to you the meaning of the name 
Jesus, which signifies a Saviour, and was cho- 
sen to be his name, because he was to save his 
people from their sins. Secondly, I explained 
to you the meaning of the name, or title, 
Christ, which signifies the anointed, and was 
applied to Jesus, because as kings were anoint- 
ed with oil in testimony of their high office, 
so Jesus was spiritually anointed by God to 
be a king, or ruler, over the souls of men. 
And thirdly, I explained to you the mean- 
ing of the w r ord lord, which signifies mas- 
ter, or one who has authority, and is applied 
to Jesus to denote that he is the especial Mas- 
ter and Head of all his disciples, or Christians. 
The conclusion is, that his teachings and com- 
mandments are to be received as the teachings 
and commandments of God. 

6. I spoke to you in the sixth sermon, of 
the infancy of Jesus ; for your Saviour was 
once a child like yourselves. I spoke to you 
of the angels w r ho announced his birth with 
sweet songs in the skies, and of the humble 
place in which he was born, and of the shep- 



SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 117 

herds who came to see him first, and the wise 
men from the East who came to see him after- 
wards. And then I told you of his being ta- 
ken by his parents into Egypt, when they were 
afraid of the cruel Herod ; and of their return, 
after the death of Herod, to the village of 
Nazareth, in their own country, where the 
child Jesus " grew, and waxed strong in spirit, 
filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was 
upon him." 

7. And in the seventh sermon I spoke to 
you of the childhood of Jesus. I told you 
how his parents took him with them, when he 
was twelve years old, to the city of Jerusalem, 
at the Feast of the Passover ; and how they 
missed him when they were on their return to 
Nazareth ; and how, when they went back to 
Jerusalem, they found him in the great temple 
there, listening to the learned teachers of re- 
ligion, and asking them questions, because he 
wished already to prepare himself for the w r ork 
of his heavenly Father. And then I told you 
how he returned with his parents to Nazareth ; 
and how he " was subject to them " there, 
obeying them in all things, and working for 
them ; and how he " increased in wisdom and 



118 SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 

stature, and in favor with God and man." In 
these accounts you beheld the example which 
was set by Jesus, when he was a child, to all 
children ; an example of studiousness and dili- 
gence, of mildness, and docility, and obedience ; 
an example of qualities and conduct which 
gained him the love and favor of God and of 
man. And does not such an example speak to 
your hearts, and persuade you to imitate it, as 
far as you possibly can ? 

8. Having in the two preceding discourses 
related to you the incidents of the infancy and 
childhood of Jesus, I told you in the next, 
which was the eighth in order, what he said of 
children, and how he treated them, when he 
had grown up to manhood, and was teaching 
the people, and doing his wonderful works. I 
told you how, on one occasion, when his disci- 
ples had been disputing with one another about 
who should be first and greatest among them, 
he showed them a little child, and assured them 
that they must be humble and simple as that 
child was, before they could be really great. 
And I told you how, on another occasion, 
when a number of little children were brought 
to him, that he might lay his hands on them 



SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 119 

and bless them, he kindly took them up in his 
arms, and gave them his holy blessing, though 
his disciples thought they would trouble him, 
and wanted to send them away. I thus showed 
you that Jesus always remembered and loved 
little children, and that children ought to love 
him and obey his precepts. 

9. My ninth sermon was a New- Year's 
sermon, expressing a New- Year's wish ; which 
was, that you might u walk in truth." And 
this wish was divided into four parts ; the first, 
that you might love the truth ; the second, that 
you might learn the truth ; the third, that you 
might speak the truth ; and the fourth, that 
you might live the truth. This is a wish that 
may be repeated at any time ; and every one 
who loves children, and sincerely wishes them 
well, may say, in the words of St. John, 
which were the text of this sermon, " I have 
no greater joy than to hear that my children 
walk in truth." 

10. Children have faults. It is proper that 
they should be told of their faults, in order 
that they may amend them. With a view to 
your improvement, therefore, I described in 
my tenth discourse some of the faults to which 



120 SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 

children are liable. I warned you against the 
fault of wilfulness, or of setting up your own 
will in opposition to the will of those whom it 
is your duty to obey. I warned you, secondly, 
against the disposition to disturb and tease those 
about you by noisy or mischievous behavior. 
I warned you, thirdly, against the sin of tyr- 
anny ; the sin and wickedness of domineering 
over, or in any way rendering uncomfortable 
and unhappy, those who are younger, or poorer, 
or weaker than yourselves. Other faults might 
have been mentioned ; but I left you to reflect 
seriously upon these, and, if you are not prone 
to these, to reflect seriously upon the faults 
you have, of which your consciences will in- 
form you. 

" My little children, these things write I un- 
to you, that ye sin not." You will readily see 
that I have addressed these ten discourses to 
you, with the purpose of guarding you against 
sin, and helping you in the wa} r of goodness 
and eternal life. Happy shall I be if I have 
interested you in subjects so important to your 
welfare now and hereafter. My heart is with 
you. My prayers are for you. It is difficult 
for you to tell how anxiously and earnestly 



SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 121 

many of your elders, all who love you best 
and most truly, are regarding your conduct, 
and the signs of your moral course. You are 
considered not merely as children, but as those 
who are soon to be the men and women of so- 
ciety. The old are tottering and passing away ; 
the middle-aged are growing old ; the circle of 
time is steadily rolling round ; and very soon, 
though it may not seem so to you in looking 
forward, you will leave your schools, and the 
studies and sports of childhood, and take your 
part in the business and concerns of the world. 
Your dispositions, and qualities, and habits, 
your knowledge and your ignorance, will exert 
their full influence. Your character will be 
part of the character of your country. Is it 
a wonder, then, that you are looked upon with 
an intense interest ? Is it a wonder, that many 
eyes are seriously and affectionately watching 
you, to discover, if they can, by your position 
and progress now, what will be your place and 
your path hereafter? That you are objects of 
such regards, cannot make you vain. You will 
rather be made humble in view of the love 
which yearns toward you, and of the work you 
are called upon to perform. I beseech you to 



122 SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 

strive with all your might to fulfil the hopes 
which are formed of you. Improve the time 
which your Creator gave you for the express 
purpose of improvement. Store your minds 
with true knowledge ; and bear this in your 
minds especially, my children, that the chief 
end of all your studies, an end beyond compar- 
ison more important than any other, is, that 
you may be made good and useful, — good and 
useful. You can easily remember this truth, 
for like almost all important truths, it is plain 
and simple. Remember it, and act upon it. 
Act upon it faithfully and constantly. Then 
you will amply repay all that has been paid for 
you ; then you will fill with joy many expecting 
hearts ; then your parents and your friends will 
bless you ; your country will bless you ; your 
Saviour and your God will look down favorably 
upon you, and will take you to themselves in 
bliss and glory, when your course on earth is 
ended. 



A CATECHISM 

FOR THE INSTRUCTION OF CHILDREN. 



PAET I. 

Question. Can you tell me, child, who made 
you? 

Answer. God made me and all things. 

Q. For what did God make you ? 

A. To be good and happy. 

Q. What is it to be good ? 

A. To love and obey my parents, to speak 
the truth always, and to be just and kind to all 
persons. 

Q. Can God know whether you be good or 
not? 

A. Yes ; for though we cannot see God, 
yet he sees us, wherever we are, by night as 
well as by day. 

Q. What will God do for you, if you be 
good? 

A. He will love me, and make me happy. 

Q. Can you do anything for God, who is 
so good to you ? 



124 A CATECHISM FOR 

A. I can only love him, obey him, and be 
thankful to him ; I can do nothing for him. 

Q. Can you speak to God ? 

A. Yes ; he has bid us to pray to him for 
everything which is fit for us, and he is al- 
ways ready to hear us. 

Q. In what manner should you pray to 
God? 

A. Our Saviour, Jesus Christ, has given us 
a form of prayer, called the Lord's Prayer. 

Q. Repeat the Lord's Prayer. 
A. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed 
be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will 
be done on earth, as it is in heaven. Give us 
this day our daily bread. And forgive us our 
trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass 
against us. And lead us not into temptation 
but deliver us from evil. For thine is the 
kingdom, and the power, and the glory for ever 
and ever. Amen. 

Q. What will God do to those who are not 
good? 

A. He will punish them. 

Q. Is God able to punish those who are not 
good? 

A. Yes ; he who made all things can do all 



THE INSTRUCTION OF CHILDREN. 125 

things ; he can take away all our friends, and 
everything which he has given us ; and he can 
make us die, whenever he pleases. 

Q. After you die, shall you live again ? 

A. Yes ; God will raise us from the dead, 
and if we be good, we shall die no more. 

Q. Where shall you live again, if you have 
been good ? 

A. If I have been good, I shall go to heaven, 
where I shall be very happy forever. 

Q. What shall become of the wicked, when 
they die ? 

A. They shall meet with their just punish- 
ment. 

Q. When you do anything which is wrong, 
should you not be afraid that God, who sees 
you, will punish you ? 

A. Yes ; but he has promised to forgive us, 
if we be sorry for our sins, and endeavor to 
sin no more. 

Q. Who has told us, that God will forgive 
us, if we repent of our sins, and endeavor to 
sin no more ? 

A. Many persons by whom God spake, and 
particularly Jesus Christ. 

Q. Who was Jesus Christ ? 



126 A CATECHISM FOR 

A. The well-beloved Son of God, whom the 
Father sent to teach men their duty, and to 
persuade and encourage them to practise it. 

Q. Where do we learn what we know con- 
cerning Christ, and what he did, taught, and 
suffered for the good of men ? 

A. In the Bible, which we should diligently 
read and study, for our improvement in knowl- 
edge and goodness, in order to fit us for heav- 
en. 

Q. Is there any form of words in which 
Christians express the principal articles of their 
belief? 

A. Yes ; the Apostles' Creed, which was 
composed in the first ages of Christianity, is 
such a form. 

Q. Repeat the Apostles' Creed. 

A. I believe in God, the Father Almighty, 
maker of heaven and earth ; 

And in Jesus Christ, his only Son our Lord ; 
who w r as conceived by the Holy Ghost ; born 
of the Virgin Mary ; suffered under Pontius 
Pilate; was crucified, dead, and buried; the 
third day he rose again from the dead ; he as- 
cended into heaven ; and sitteth at the right 
hand of God, the Father Almighty; from 



THE INSTKUCTION OF CHILDKEN. 127 

thence he shall come to judge the living and 
the dead. 

I believe in the Holy Ghost ; the holy cath- 
olic church ; the communion of saints ; the 
forgiveness of sins ; the resurrection of the 
body ; and the life everlasting. Amen. 



PART II. 

Q, Does the Bible inform us what God him- 
self is ? 

A. Yes ; it teaches us that he is a being who 
had no beginning, and that he will have no 
end ; that he is almighty, perfectly wise, and 
infinitely good ; that he is everywhere present ; 
and that he never changes in his nature or dis- 
position. 

Q. What does God require of us, in order 
to live and die in his favor ? 

A. All that God requires of us is compre- 
hended in these two precepts ; Thou shalt love 
the Lord thy God with all thy heart ; and thy 
neighbor as thyself. 

Q. In what manner must we express our 
love to God ? 



128 A CATECHISM FOR 

A. By a grateful sense of his goodness to 
us ; by a constant care to do his will ; and by 
an entire and cheerful submission to all the 
dispensations of his providence. 

Q. How must we express our love to our 
fellow-men ? 

A. By doing to others, as we should think 
it right in them to do to us in the same circum- 
stances. 

Q. By what methods must we cherish our 
love to God, and increase our confidence in 
him ? 

A. We must frequently consider the benefits 
he confers upon us. We must also address 
ourselves to him in prayer, thanking him for 
the mercies he bestows upon us, confessing our 
sins before him, and asking of him whatever 
he knows to be needful and good for us. 

Q. How shall we bring ourselves into the 
best disposition for performing our duty to God 
and man ? 

A. By a proper government of our passions, 
according to the dictates of reason and con- 
science ; by living in temperance and chastity ; 
and never indulging a proud, malicious, or self- 
ish temper. 



THE INSTRUCTION OF CHILDREN. 129 

Q. What should we do, when persons affront 
and injure us ? 

A. We should not return evil for evil ; and 
if they repent, we must forgive them, as we 
hope that God will forgive us our offences 
against him. 

Q. In what manner should we treat the in- 
ferior animals ? 

A. We should treat them with tenderness 
and humanity ; and never torment them or de- 
stroy their lives to make ourselves sport ; be- 
cause they are the creatures of God, and 
because God has commanded us to be merciful 
unto them. 

Q. Has God anywhere delivered distinct 
directions, concerning the several branches of 
our duty to him and to our neighbor ? 

A. Yes, in the Ten Commandments, which 
he delivered to the children of Israel from 
Mount Sinai. 

Q. Which is the first commandment ? 

A. Thou shalt have no other gods but me. 

Q. Which is the second commandment ? 

A. Thou shalt not make to thyself any 
graven image, nor the likeness of anything 
that is in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, 
9 



130 A CATECHISM FOR 

or in the water under the earth ; thou shalt 
not bow down to them, nor worship them ; for 
I, the Lord thy God, am a jealous God, and 
visit the sins of the fathers upon the children, 
unto the third and fourth generation of those 
who hate me ; and show mercy unto thousands 
of those who love me and keep my command- 
ments. 

Q. Which is the third commandment ? 

A. Thou shalt not take the name of the 
Lord thy God in vain ; for the Lord will not 
hold him guiltless who taketh his name in vain. 

Q. Which is the fourth commandment ? 

A. Remember that thou keep holy the Sab- 
bath day. Six days shalt thou labor, and do 
all that thou hast to do ; but the seventh day 
is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God. In it 
thou shalt do no manner of work, thou, and 
thy son, and thy daughter ; thy man servant, 
and thy maid servant ; thy cattle, and the 
stranger who is within thy gates. For in six 
days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, 
and all that in them is, and rested the seventh 
day ; wherefore the Lord blessed the seventh 
day, and hallowed it. 

Q. Which is the fifth commandment ? 



THE INSTRUCTION OF CHILDREN. 131 

A. Honor thy father and thy mother ; that 
thy days may be long in the land which the 
Lord thy God giveth thee. 

Q. Which is the sixth commandment ? 

A. Thou shalt do no murder. 

Q. Which is the seventh commandment? 

A. Thou shalt not commit adultery. 

Q. Which is the eighth commandment ? 

A. Thou shalt not steal. 

Q. Which is the ninth commandment? 

A. Thou shalt not bear false witness against 
thy neighbor. 

Q. Which is the tenth commandment ? 

A. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's 
house; thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's 
wife ; nor his servant, nor his maid, nor his ox, 
nor his ass, nor anything that is his. 

Q. What are those principles which most 
effectually lead to the observance of these, and 
all other of God's commandments ? 

A. A high reverence of God, and a sincere 
good-will to our fellow-creatures, joined with a 
just regard to our own real interest. 

Q. What is the best method we can take to 
guard ourselves from all vice and wickedness ? 

A. By being careful not to indulge sinful 



132 A CATECHISM FOR 

thoughts ; and by correcting everything which 
is amiss in the beginning, before we have be- 
come accustomed to it, and have formed a hab- 
it which cannot easily be broken ; particularly 
by avoiding the company of wicked persons, 
who w T ould soon make us like themselves ; and 
by being, in a more especial manner, upon our 
guard against those vices, to which our situation 
and circumstances make us peculiarly prone. 

Q. Is any man able to fulfil all the commands 
of God, so as to live entirely without sin ? 

A. No. Our merciful God and Father knows 
that we are not able to do this, and, therefore, 
does not expect it from us. He only requires 
that we repent of the sins we commit, and en- 
deavor to live better lives for the future. 

Q. What should a sense of our frailty and 
proneness to sin teach us ? 

A. Humility and watchfulness, and earnest- 
ness in our prayers to God, to enable us to re- 
sist temptation, and to strengthen and confirm 
our good dispositions. 

Q. Did Christ appoint any outward ordi- 
nances as means of promoting his religion ? 

A. He commanded his disciples to go and 
teach all nations, baptizing them in the name 



THE INSTRUCTION OF CHILDREN. 133 

of the Father, and of the Son, and of the 
Holy Ghost ; and he also commanded them to 
eat bread and drink wine in remembrance of 
him. This rite is called the Lord's Supper. 

Q. What is the meaning of baptism ? 

A. The washing of water in baptism prob- 
ably represents the purity of heart and life 
required from all who become the disciples of 
Christ. 

Q. What is the nature and use of the Lord's 
Supper ? 

A. By eating bread and drinking wine in 
remembrance of Christ, we keep alive the 
memory of his death and resurrection ; we 
acknowledge ourselves to be Christians ; we 
cherish a grateful sense of the blessings of 
the Gospel of Christ ; and strengthen our res- 
olutions to live as becomes his disciples. 

Q. Had Christ no particular reward on ac- 
count of what he did and suffered for the good 
of men ? 

A. Because he humbled himself to death, 
God has highly exalted him, and made him 
head over all things to his Church ; and at the 
end of the world he will come to judge the liv- 
ing and the dead. For this hope which was 



134 A CATECHISM. 

set before him, he endured the cross, and de- 
spised the shame of that ignominious death. 

Q. What do the Scriptures say concerning 
the day of judgment ? 

A. That Christ will come in the clouds of 
heaven with power and great glory, when 
every eye shall see him ; that he will separate 
the wicked from the good ; that he will send 
the wicked into a place of punishment, and 
take the righteous to a place of happiness, 
where they shall live forever with himself. 



THE END. 



Cambridge : Stereotyped and Printed by Welch, Bigelow, & Co. 



